Black Orchid
by iluvaqt
Summary: Crossover DC Comics. AU Shield S10E02. Sometimes the sidekick, has to step up and be the hero. It's not glamorous, it's lonely, it's terrifying and painful. But her determination and her heart have always been her greatest strengths. Chlollie, Chlart
1. Prologue

**Title:** Black Orchid  
**Author:** iluvaqt  
**Pairings:** Chloe/Oliver, Chloe/Bart, Chloe/Bruce hinted, Dinah/Oliver  
**Fandoms:** Smallville/DCU Comics  
**Rating: **M  
**Warnings:** violence, character deaths, angst, drug use, sexual references  
**Characters:** Chloe Sullivan, Oliver Queen, Bart Allen, Bruce Wayne, Roy Harper, Connor Hawke, Dinah Lance, Deadshot, other DCU mentions.  
**Spoilers:** Lazarus S10E01, with Shield mentions.  
**Setting:** AU after Shield. Crossover with DC Comics universe (mentions): Cry for Justice story, The Green Arrow Brightest Day #1-2, Green Arrow & Black Canary, Superman/Batman, #1-6, #44 - #49, and various Justice League issues.

**Summary**: Sometimes the sidekick, has to step up and be the hero. It's not glamorous, it's lonely, it's terrifying and painful. But her determination and her heart have always been her greatest strengths. Ten years after her _death_, Chloe comes face to face with her past.

**Notes: **This fic is my pay it forward gift to **purple_moon123**

**Disclaimer:** "_Smallville_" is the property of WarnerBros & The CW. All characters referenced are the property of DC Comics and remain so. No infringement of copyright is intended.

* * *

**PROLOGUE**

**October 2010**

Rick Flag unlocks the handcuffs and chains from the limp body in the chair. He pulls the person's head back by their sweaty, bloodstained, matted blonde hair to stare them in the face. "Cyanide," he spits disgustedly as his eyes room over her unresponsive, pale, bruised form. "And Waller was hopeful she'd cooperate. Get rid of the body."

Karin, their medic, checks her over. Her pupils are fixed and there's white froth spilling from her mouth, it's tinted with blood. She's probably bitten her own tongue more than half a dozen times. Another figure moves out of the shadows.

"I'll move the body. Manhunter will help. I feel like I knew her. Or well when Ava took her form anyway. I don't really think we should just toss her body off the dock. It'd be weird."

Karin cracks a small smirk at that. "Didn't know you had a heart Plastique. Who was she?"

"Chloe," she says quietly. "Chloe Sullivan."

Five minutes later, they've pulled up to a cemetery. Manhunter carries her over on his broad shoulder with ease. They drop her into a freshly dug plot and Plastique looks down into the darkened hole at the small body at the bottom.

"Hope he was worth it, Blondie. Me, personally, the guy shot me. Next time I see him, I'm going to fry him nice and slow. " She looks up at the headstone. It reads, _"Here lies Penny Haysworth, beloved wife and mother. Loved by all."_ Plastique snorts. "Sorry, guess you're neither. We wanted you for the team. Might have been nice having another girl around. Your loss."

Manhunter extends his baton and hits the pile of earth by the plot. The earth shakes and soon the hole is filled in.

Plastique's eyes glow in agitation. "A little warning might have been nice."

Manhunter retracts his power baton and shrugs. "Let's move."

.

**Three days later**

Chloe jerks and gasps for breath, her abrupt movements causing her to roll off the narrow cot and landing her on the floor with a hard thump.

Her skin is clammy but at least her clothes are clean. She blinks and tries to calm her racing pulse. She doesn't recognize anything about where she is, not what she's wearing, not the place.

"Easy."

Strong, slender arms encircle her from behind and she instinctively puts her hand to the woman's wrists. She knows that voice. She hasn't heard that voice in months. "Andrea?" she asks, confused. She looks up and sees Andrea crouched behind her, her long black hair pulled up practically into a thick ponytail, her sleeves rolled up, a look of intense concern on her face.

"You've been out for three days. After I got your call, I came straight to the city waiting for your signal. Chloe, you took a real gamble just taking off like that. If I'd been even a few minutes later..." After helping Chloe to sit on the bed again, she put a hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, her jaw ticking tightly. "I had to shock you twice even after giving you the antidote to bring you back, and even then you couldn't breathe on your own. Your lung collapsed and I had to bribe a guy I know to steal a ventilator for me. Set us up here. Damn it, I think you scared me half to death at least a dozen times. I got this close to calling him. Fuck, my promise. You're my friend, I wasn't going to let you die."

Chloe blinked rapidly. "I nearly died? I did die? What antidote?"

Andrea sighed. "I figured this would happen. The rapid antidote for cyanide that can counteract the poison even after an hour after exposure is said to cause memory loss, even permanent brain damage. Considering you were literally dead for over half an hour while I dug you out of that grave, I'd say you're damn lucky you're not a vegetable. Not counting the fact that it's a miracle you're even breathing on your own."

Chloe lets out a shaky laugh. "I'm a fast healer. And haven't you heard, this isn't my first Lazarus rodeo."

Andrea shots her a dark look. "I swear to you Chloe. I'm never doing anything like that again. Those IOUs are done. My life isn't worth all that, screw ever watching my back again. I feel like I helped kill someone."

Chloe nodded quietly, unable to say anything in her defense or offer her friend comfort in her obvious distress. Her brain was still fuzzy but certain things were slowly coming back to her. She remembered standing at her bathroom mirror, holding the cyanide capsule in her hand before gluing it with denture cream the side of her back upper molar. Where she could dislodge it with her tongue once they started with the torture. She remembered staring at the video chat picture Ollie had screen-capped of her and printed while he was on one of his extended jaunts to Star City. She smiled, recalling how flabbergasted she'd been when he proudly presented her with the photo, saying it's the best away gift he could have ever asked for. And when they could set up their next virtual rendezvous. She also recalled the moment she'd hacked Tess' email account after doing an overhaul of Watchtower's systems, and removing any digital trace of Chloe Sullivan from existence. Her eyes close in anguish as she remembers her last written words as Chloe Sullivan, her goodbye note to Oliver. Everything after that was a mental blank.

Thank God she didn't remember the torture. She felt sore, her ribs ached with every breath she took, and her skin felt hot and tender but she couldn't seem to remember what had happened to her after leaving Watchtower to meet with her contact to make the exchange.

"This is for you," Andrea said handing her a memory stick. "You made a copy of Watchtower's critical systems and a small portion of the League's database. I know you said not to take anything personal, but I thought you should have something of your own." She pressed a small charm bracelet into Chloe's hand. It had a delicate platinum chain and two charms, a bow and arrow and a spoon. Oliver had gotten it for her after he'd been discharged from the hospital. She didn't know how Andrea had known it was significant to her, and she wasn't going to ask.

She wordlessly put it on her left wrist, heedless of the fact that it was going to catch on her bandages. Oliver had said it was a gift to say thank you for looking after him and putting up with his grumpy hide and for being a such a difficult patient. He'd been forced to stay for a week, until Emil was satisfied he wouldn't overdo it and chances of developing an infection where minimal. With this miracle healing gel Emil had been working on, he was optimistic there would be virtually no scarring. Chloe had been secretly intensely relieved over that. Not only would it have been a double blow to his ego, first for letting Zod burn him and second for the permanent marring, but she loved his chest. After his hands, and his gorgeous dark rich coffee brown eyes, his chest was her favorite feature. She loved how smooth, strong and warm he always was. Solid wall of creamy perfectly sculpted muscle. She'd eaten off that chest many times. Her heart clenched painfully, that was n the last. She never would again.

Andrea read her expression, and put a comforting hand on her arm. "Maybe in a couple of months, when we track these guys down, figure out who they are and get them to back off, you can..."

"I can't go back... I did what had to be done. He would have died, Dre. I saw what they were doing to him in my mind, Nabu showed me, and Oliver wasn't going to give them anything. He was going to die with a smirk on his face, snarking at them while taking a bullet to the head. Fate showed me how I could change that. Oliver's meant to live. He has a son. I didn't know about him before and Oliver's forgotten about him. He's the hero, Andrea, I'm the sidekick. I'm doing my job. He believes I'm all he has but he's wrong. I'm going to remind him he has a family, and he has a responsibility. Not just to his son, but to his city, to the League. He made a promise to himself that he'd be a better man, that he could be the hero that would make his parents proud. He's made me proud. He's made me believe again. He won't stray from the path he was born to walk this time. I've seen his future. Green Arrow is one of the world's greatest heroes, right along side Clark. He doesn't need me to stand next to him for that."

-.-

**Notes:** The Manhunter referenced here is human, he was trained by the sect, called Manhunters, hence the code name he goes by. His real name is Mark Shaw. He's a very hard, down-to-business guy and was recruited by the Suicide Squad.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1  
Three days prior**

Chloe feels the bones of Rick's knuckles connect with her jaw and it cracks with an explosion of pain. A sprinkling of tiny stars dot her vision and her whole face flares up with white hot pain. Tears burn in her eyes again. How long till he's free from them? Half an hour? An hour? She tried to count in her head how long the trip from the pick up point to the exchange had been. They'd asked her to wear the hood from where they'd pulled up to the curb side on the street just a block from the Daily Planet. She needs to know he is free from them before she gives into the pain threatening to overwhelm her. She has to know that he's safe.

After the first shock, she lost her count. It could have been as little as five minutes that she'd been out, or a hour. She has no way of telling.

They'd stripped her down. She is in nothing but her plain, flesh-colored underwear. Not that she cares particularly what happened to her clothing. She'd left all her precious belongings behind. The necklace from Jimmy, that had been his grandmothers, two 24k gold turtledoves woven into an ornate pendant, she wore it a lot but she'd left it in her jewelry box. She allowed herself to wonder for a second what would become of it now. She could hope that Lois would keep it, knowing that it was valuable that Chloe'd want someone she cared about to hang onto it but there really wasn't any guarantee. What reason would Lois have to keep any of her things, considering the circumstances she'd left. Perhaps one day, Oliver or Clark could explain her reasons better. Oliver, her heart burns at the thought of him. Would he understand? Would he let her go like she expects him to?

She also hadn't worn any earrings and the outfit she'd worn had been something she could have easily put in the welfare donation bin years ago. She'd worn a baggy sweater and faded black jeans. Articles of clothing that wouldn't be missed, that had been in the back of her closet since high school. They had been her house clothes, or as her Dad like to tease, her comfort, movie-marathon, time-of-the-month wears. Considering she hadn't tried pulled them out in years, she'd been surprised they still fit. She knew she'd be here, naked save for a scrap of material covering her crotch, so she saw no sense in dressing for the occasion. It was their way of trying to break her down psychologically. Tearing her out of her comfort zone, making her feel threatened and vulnerable. If she thought it wouldn't make the torture worse, she would have laughed at them. Like she would have come to them without a plan, then again she was counting on them underestimating her from the start. This short, tiny, less than athletic, little female. How insignificant. They seemed know at least a little about her though, they'd taken her phone and crushed it on the pavement and then scanned her from head to toe for any transmitters. She was the techie of the group, their eyes and ears, they'd expected her to strip her either of GPS tracing chip or a wire. From the look on the burly guy's face, he'd looked a little disappointed.

Chloe flinches bodily when he yanks her head back to get in her face. He seems to like breathing on her. He doesn't have a clean, alluring masculine smell like Ollie. It was as though his sweat is laced with gunpowder, it burns her nostrils. He also smells like dried blood. Probably hers and Oliver's she thinks sickly, her stomach turning over at the thought. This will all be over soon, she reminds herself in an effort to bolster her confidence. Oliver will be safe at home and she will be free of this seemingly unending torment. Her heart races in her chest, despite her control breathing. Oliver had taught her how to deal with pain, to push through it. Breathe. Why does the thought of her pain ending, not bring her any comfort. Maybe because this is only the beginning. The real test of of her strength, will be to stick with the plan that is still to come.

Clenching her fists together, she shakes out her hair that is hanging down irritating her nose and lifts her chin in what she hopes is a defiant pose, listening for her torturer. "What was the question again?" she asks sweetly.

Rick sneers at her with a cruel grin, not that she can see it. "You two really make quiet a pair. You really don't know when to just stop with the sarcasm, do you?"

Chloe sucks in air desperately, her chest feeling so tight it's hard to keep up the deep breathing. It's a feeling she's had before. Like when Clark forgot he'd given her his tool box to hold, till the weight of it had dug into her rib cage. He had done that once, when they'd tried repairing that good old' red tractor together. The only one that the Kents had, had before Clark had accidentally tossed it halfway across the county, almost crushing Perry White. Looking at him, it's hard to remember that he has to constantly remind himself that he's so much stronger than everyone else. The air exhales from her mouth in shaky chuckle. "My Mom says I was born with my sparkling wit. Can't help it."

"Well maybe I can help with that," Rick says dryly. He doesn't even give her any warning. Doesn't even bother asking the question again. Besides, he is sure that she knows what he wants by now. He's already asked three times. He doesn't like repeating himself. Three times is plenty. Either she is going to give him the answer he wants to hear, or she's going to die with him trying to drag it out of her. He doesn't like torture, but he prides himself on being the best at his job. And sometimes his job requires that he ply people with a little persuasion. Not the most favorite part of his job, but he is good at it none the less.

She lasts another three hours before she finally goes limp from the last round of electro-therapy. He tosses a bucket of water over her each time she passes out. He alternates between icy water, and hot water. Knowing that the changes in temperature will create the most effective sensory shocks.

He throws the pail of ice water over her and she doesn't move. He sets the bucket down and kicks at her leg. It jiggles sluggishly. He slaps her across the face and snaps smelling salts under her nose.

Well damn, he thinks to himself, considering how much she's taken without so much as scream of protest so far, he believed she would have handled a lot more. He presses fingers to her neck, searching for a pulse and shakes his head angrily when he doesn't find one. He whips the blindfold off.

"Karin," he yells. Stepping closer, he grabs her hair and tilts her head back so he can inspect her properly. Her lips are bluish and there's a forthy white substance clinging to the corner of her mouth. He knows what that is even before he pries her mouth open to confirm his suspicions. A small broken capsule, still foaming, falls out into his hand.

"Karin," he yells again. The woman in question comes in carrying red bulky medical bag with her.

"Coming, jeez what's got you in a mood?"

Rick steps behind the chair and unlocks the shackles. He doesn't answer her until he showed her the girl's face. "Cyanide," he spits out.

"Why did she wait so long if she'd had it on her the whole time?" Karin asks him later after the others take the body away, and she's repacking her bag.

Rick shrugs and heaves a breath before his eyes narrow. "Probably so Mr. Queen made it safe back to his bed, and we didn't renege on our end of the deal. Gotta hand it to her, she was one tough little thing. Would have made a good agent if it weren't for that stubborn, misguided idealistic loyalty she had. A real waste if you ask me."

Karin shoulders her bag. "If she loved him like that, you can bet he felt the same. He'll be looking for her."

Rick smiles slowly, his whole face brightening. "Oh don't worry, darlin', we're counting on it."

.

**At the cemetery, after the Suicide Squad members leave...**

Andrea shots out her grapple line and sails across to the large mausoleum near Chloe's freshly filled in grave. Racing over, she starts digging, cursing that she hadn't come more prepared. As soon as Chloe's homing signal started blinking, she knew she was on the clock. It was biometric triggered. If her heart stopped for more than 30 seconds, it would activate. They'd theorized that as soon as they picked her up that she would be scanned for transmitters, so they'd planted a dormant bug that wouldn't be detected.

When Chloe had called her with her suicidal plan, Andrea had begged her to find another way, to give them a little more time to formulate a rescue. But Chloe had been convinced there was no alternative. That Fate hadn't told her where he was, just who had him. She'd found a way to contact the man and negotiated the trade. He'd gone for it, and she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. This was the only way to save him in time. There was no way of knowing if this group that had him knew about the rest of the team or how many traps they might have laid, ready in wait for them. She couldn't risk anyone else. sThis was their one and only chance to rescue Oliver before his fate was sealed and his clock ran out.

Even with her super-strength, it's taking forever to reach the bottom. Andrea dives forward, forcing her arms deeper and deeper into the earth, heaving the armloads of dirt over her shoulder. "Damn it, Chloe, just hang on." Tears are streaming down her face, and her heart's beating wildly in her chest. She's damn fond of this woman. She can put six-foot three men in their place without skipping a beat, she can face a mugger without flinching and take down a person more than twice her size and Chloe can hack into just about any secure system anyone could throw at her. Andrea admires her a lot, and Chloe is trusting her to execute this one-woman rescue. It was absolutely insane, but she'd agreed to it, not just because she owed Chloe her life more than once over, but because she had this sliver of hope, that if anyone could come out of this hair-brained scheme on top, it would be Chloe.

Finally she felt an arm. Grabbing onto it, she pulls and Chloe's head broke through the loose dirt. Pushing her hands into the earth, she hooks them under Chloe's arms and pulls her torso free. Falling back again the dirt, Andrea uncaps the syringe with shaky fingers, and depresses the plunger, emptying its contents into Chloe's heart. Taking off her jacket, she puts it around Chloe's frigid, partially naked body and starts chest compressions. She tilts Chloe's head back, pinches her nose and breathes into her mouth, before resuming her compressions again. When there's no change, Andrea pulls out her taser and shocked Chloe. Her body arches up and then thumps back onto the ground. Andrea searched for a pulse, and still doesn't find one. She breathed into her friend again, and then sat back on her feet, and shocked her a second time. With fingers just won't stop trembling, she presses her fingers to Chloe's neck and feels for a pulse, her own heart skips a beat when she finds it. It's faint and thready but it's there. Buttoning the coat, to shield her from the cold, Andrea struggles to her feet, she's shaking from head to toe now with overwhelming relief and a tide of undecipherable emotion, she hisses angrily, wishing she can get a hold of herself. She bend down and scooped up her friend, and with little effort lifts Chloe free from her grave. She puts her cheek close to Chloe's parted lips to check for expiration. There's barely any air leaving her mouth and there was a gasping, gurgling sound coming from her throat. Her lungs has collapsed.

Andrea runs for her car. She needs to lay Chloe out before she trying to stick her to re-inflate her lungs. She trains her focus on what she has to do to take care of Chloe, instead of giving into the voice yelling in her head to just drive her to the nearest hospital and call Oliver.

-.-

**Notes:** Chloe's rescuer is Andrea Rojas a.k.a **Angel of Vengeance**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Tess sits outside the Metro Coffee Shop, reading her morning paper and sipping at her latte when a shadow blocks her sunlight. She glances up to see a pensive faced Oliver, he's still sporting that lovely bruise around his left eye but it's healing, still looking no less ghastly however now that it's turning black and yellow.

"You know, I have a brilliant PA who could cover that up so the execs wouldn't even bat an eye, but something tells me that's not why you've dropped by. Twice in two days, Ollie, if I didn't know you better, you could start to give a girl ideas," she says her lips curling upward with a small smile, but he doesn't take the bait. She arches an eyebrow at him.

Oliver doesn't sit down, he doesn't even smile a courtesy greeting. He just stands there for a moment staring down at her, frowning slightly wondering just what brought him here. He can't even remember getting in his car this morning, let alone taking a walk to her second favorite coffee house.

"Are you planning on attracting attention or are you going to sit down? Because if you're going with plan A, it's working," Tess quips tersely. She gets that Oliver's having a rough time but the days where she suffered her name being splashed across every tabloid as Oliver's latest conquest were long over and she'd worked hard to make a name for herself and cement their relationship as a purely professional partnership. His mood and his stance weren't doing them any favors. It was making like a good photo op for a public spat.

Oliver curls his hands around the back of the vacant chair. "Are you done here?" At her nod, he releases the chair and put his hands in his jean pockets. "Fine, let's take a walk."

Tess gives him a skeptical look for the line he just feed her but stands anyway. She leaves the paper and sets her half finished coffee cup on top.

Oliver takes her elbow and maneuvers her closer, so that there almost isn't any distance between them. Instinctively, Tess hooks her arm in his so this looks more like a companionable stroll than manhandling and he doesn't shrug her off. Oliver leans toward her slightly and speaks up as they walk, "Kat Grant is arranging a press conference for me. Well not for me exactly, for you know..." Tess looks at him sharply. "I'm coming out."

Tess stops walking, scans the street up and down before pulling him into the alley. "Oliver, Chloe sacrificed herself so that you could be free, not so you could paint a big fat target on your forehead," she whispered harshly in hushed tones.

"You don't get it. Chloe's gone. Nobody or everyone can come after me, I've got nothing to lose. If I'm going to do this job, people need to see that I'm the hero not the vigilante the press is making me out to be."

Tess stares at him incredulously. "Interesting word choice. You can't still be in denial. Oliver, if she's with the people that took you, there's a good chance she's dead already. Her last words to you were that you were her hero. Are you seriously going to throw that all away? Do you really think our justice system is going to let you keep on doing what you're doing? You're kidding yourself if you think coming out is going to win you public support. People are fickle. One day they're praising your heroics, the next they're looking for a way to crucify you."

"She's out there, I know it. And if she wants me to keep doing this and not spend every second of every day of my life looking for her, then this is what I need to do."

Tess folds her arms across her chest lightly, giving him a serious once over. He isn't kidding about devoting his life to searching for her, she sighs softly, her eyes watering in understand of just how real and how deep his feelings for Chloe go. It isn't as though she hadn't suspected as much before. Still, watching an ex-lover ready to throw his life away for someone you once resented but grew to grudgingly admire, it stung. But she's come to respect them both enough to help if she can. And all this is part of her turning a new page in her life. She is going to do her damnedest to make up for past mistakes, starting with the lies and work she's done for Lex and Checkmate in the past.

"There's something you should know about Checkmate. Before I was benched for my screw up when yours truly escaped, I was part of a special division known as the Suicide Squad. The way you were targeted and taken, I couldn't shake this feeling that they might have been behind it. So I did a little searching, Checkmate is no longer interested in pursuing Watchtower." She searches his face for any sign that he understands what she was saying. His face suddenly turned stormy and he grabs her shoulders, squeezing painfully.

"What do you know?" he demands of her with a rough growl.

Tess's eyes widened with fear and her voice wavers when she answers him, "I'm a low level agent, they barely trust me as it is. I dug up all I could without rousing suspicion. Oliver, all I know is that the file they had on Watchtower says, terminated."

Oliver releases her with a short shove. He turns and racks his hands through his hair, his face betraying an expression that is a breath away from giving into despair. "I found an antidote for cyanide in her apartment. I thought that...she's not dead. She can't be. She probably wanted them to believe it though. Where's the body? I know Chloe. She had a plan. She didn't go in there just to die."

Tess gives him a sympathetic look, her hands clenched uselessly at her sides. She watches him pace with wide eyes. He looked like an angered predatory beast with his prowling. "I know you want to believe that but you don't know them Oliver... they never would have just let her go. There is no out..."

He whirls on her. "I got out. And I know she's not dead. I'd feel it if she was. She's out there somewhere. Maybe she thinks that the only way for us to do what we do is to stay gone for now. It's classic Chloe, sacrificing herself, her own wants, her love, her needs, for the sake of everyone else. She thinks that if she stays away, that we'll be safer. She traded herself and then took that pill to protect our secrets, my secret. If I put it out there, what's to protect?"

Tess shakes her head. "Do you really think that's going to bring her back? Oliver, think about it. If you put Green Arrow and Oliver Queen out there as one and the same, you could never be together. It could be Green Arrow's enemies, someone with a bone to pick with Oliver Queen, like Winslow for instance. You'd just make yourselves easy targets. She did this to protect your identity. To protect all of you. Don't be stupid. Just do what you always do, pick yourself up and get back in the fight. Find the answers, and tell Uncle Sam where he can shove his 'Do it for your country' card."

She can tell by the look on his face that he is bullheadedly determined not to give this up but at least it looks like some of that she said is sinking in. Knowing Oliver, he'd brood over it for awhile. In the meantime, she is going to find a way to sabotage her newest employee's press conference. Piece of cake.

.

**Thousands of miles away...**

Chloe tosses and turns in her bed. The nightmares started a week ago and they're steadily getting worse. After saying a teary goodbye to Andrea, Chloe started her new life of virtual isolation as Susan Linden-Thorne, one of the more thorough identities she'd made up for Dinah or herself to use on undercover missions. The days are long, and the nights even longer where her dreams make her fearful and restless.

She's never made a move completely alone before. Her family moved around a bit when she was younger, and she'd moved a couple of times again after her Mom left. She spent holidays with Lois and Uncle Sam every second summer, and she'd gone on the run with Davis but she's never left everything behind without someone along for the ride or a friendly face to greet her at her destination. Everything feels a little surreal, like she is in a dream that she's sure she will wake up from to familiar surroundings and her cousin's chirpy voice singing over the sound of rushing water while she takes her morning shower.

Chloe sighs, sure she'd spent most of her days before Oliver had rejoined the team, alone in Watchtower, but this is so very different. There are no friendly calls to distract her. She can't meet Lois for breakfast or a late afternoon coffee break every other day, or just sit down with a box of Chinese food in front of the TV and listen to Lois dissect bad drama or fill her in on the latest adventures of Lois & Clark. She even misses having Clark breeze in expecting her to drop everything to deal with his latest breaking crisis. Anything would be a welcome distraction, a familiar face, a phone call, a friend in need. The latter she has plenty of though, but she hadn't anticipated how difficult it would be to protect her heroes while staying off this latest baddies radar, and staying anonymous and invisible to her friends.

After another agonizing nightmare woke her from her sleep, a scream on her lips, her body bathed in a cold sheen of sweat, Chloe blinks and flicks on the lamp atop her beside table. The clock read 3 a.m., it is still pitch black outside. There's no way she's going back to sleep, not unless the tryptophan from warm milk manages to stimulate serotonin in her brain to lull her back to sleep. Pushing her feet into her slippers, she freezes when an sharp knocking breaks the quiet in the house. Pulling the glock from under her pillow, she checks the clip, pulls back on the slide and then flips the safety off. Clicking off the light, she pads quietly through darkness to the front door of her townhouse, and peers through the lace curtains to the outside.

She is currently living out of a nice, homey townhouse in Sonora. Recognizing who is gracing her doorstep, she flips on the porch light and reaches to the left and shoves her glock into the side table drawer, before unlocking the door. It's her neighbors, the newlyweds. She met them the day she moved in. They came over with pie to introduce themselves, they live next door in the adjoining home. They have lived in the area since they were kids, and they bought the place next door after they got engaged. They seemed like a lovely couple.

Chloe cracks the door opened and hugs her stomach with one arm to ward off the chill. She hadn't thought to grab a robe, her senses on hyper-alert to scope out the possible danger the only thing on her mind, her flight or flight instincts jumping in the second the knocking reached her ears. The night chill blows in and hits her bone deep, she shivers. "Is everything okay?"

Nicolas hold his wife, Ashley, closer, trying to shield her from the cold. "We heard screaming, and it sounded like something broke. We wanted to check if you were alright. We thought maybe you were being robbed."

It is then that Chloe notices the steel bat in his hand, hanging loosely at his side. He has a firm grip on the handle though, probably has a pretty good batting arm. It feels like an age had passed since a guy had come to her rescue, a guy she really doesn't even know, almost a perfect stranger. It feels odd, but triggers something nostalgic in her. He reminds her a little of Clark with his big brother, overprotective expression. She blinks and looks up at them both again, her face sheepish. "I'm really sorry, I'm fine. I get... I kind of talk in my sleep and sometimes I sleep walk."

Nicolas gives her a skeptical look, while Ashley looks surprised and instantly sympathetic.

"You've never gone outside while you're... you shouldn't be alone," Ashley says worriedly.

Chloe shrugs. "I don't really have much of a choice. I don't have any family."

Ashley reaches out and squeezes her arm in a supportive gesture. "Well if you're sure you're okay." She gives Chloe another look of concern. "If you need anything, Suzy, please just come over, okay."

Chloe nods and hides partially behind the door. "You guys should get back to bed, it's freezing out. I promise, I'll try to keep it down. I could by a gag," she jokes.

Ashley's eyes go wide, while Nicolas' frown only deepens. Chloe shrugs figuring this early in the morning is obviously too early for her brand of humor.

"Sorry," she offers again softly, watching them descend her porch steps before closing the door. Chloe sags against the heavy door for a moment, closing her eyes. She really needs to get over this. Not only is she keeping herself up, but she is waking her neighbors. Maybe she needs therapy. She scoffs at the thought. With all she's been through in her life, she's never needed a head doctor. Maybe this is what Nabu had been warning her about. If nightmares are the worst of it, she can handle it. Maybe she just needs to take some sleeping pills or something. Not that she is keen on taking that route, she needs her wits and senses on alert for danger. Even though she's changed her name, her appearance, traveled across the country and deleted Chloe Sullivan from existence, fooled her captors into believing she's dead, one can never be too cautious or prepared.

-.-


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Bart paces across the Watchtower floor. Oliver watches him from the curved lounge, with a tired expression. If he doesn't give this up soon, he is going to wear a hole right through the flooring to the cement.

"Would have been nice if someone actually thought to communicate around here. It really ticks me off that I had to see that media circus of Green Arrows, realizing something's up and I find out that the woman who's the real brains of the operation, the glue that holds us all together is missing? How'd you manage to pull your ass out of the fire by the way?"

Bart is referring to the press conference one Daily Planet reporter, Kat Grant called in which every news camera, reporter and photographer in town and some even a from out of state and turned up to document the Green Arrow reveal himself to the world.

Turns out the red-faced reporter had to offer a stuttered apology when not one, but six Green Arrows arrived for the unmasking, all of varying ethnicity, build and talent for archery. The woman was made a laughing stock and the real Green Arrow was a no show.

"Tess," Oliver supplies somewhat lamely. He doesn't want to admit that he's grateful for her interference, but he's strangely relieved. The whole time he'd been standing on the building across the street out of sight, ready to sweep down and make his identity known, his heart had been thumping harder than it had ever beat before. Spotting two Green Arrows pushing through the crowd wearing eerily familiar costumes, gave him pause. And before he could finish the thought about what on earth was going on, four more Green Arrows arrived. One even dropping down from a zip-line using a fancy convertible crossbow as his pulley-grip. The whole thing was remarkably planned down to Mr Fancy Pants even speaking through a voice distorter.

"I'm all for a better public image, but going to the press is never the way to do it. Unless she was someone you thought you could trust?"

Oliver shakes his head. "Not really, especially not after I freaked her out and stole her phone. Not like she really gave me a choice. She had the first solid lead I could find on the guys that had Chloe. The ones that had me. I couldn't exactly hang around and make nice, and explain that she had her story on me backwards."

"And they call me Impulse," Bart mutters under his breath. "What you still haven't told me is why nobody's bothered to say anything about Chloe trading herself to get you out. I understand why she wouldn't have said anything. I would have stopped her, tied her up, told her she was crazy and gagged her till we got you back safely without her recklessly endangering herself. But I wasn't here, and nobody called, so I'll say again, why didn't anyone say anything!"

Oliver's jaw twitches. He knows why Bart's angry. The kid's never tried to pick a fight with him before, Bart doesn't pick a fight with anyone. He's a happy, uncomplicated, easy to please guy. The reason why Bart's angry doesn't sit well with Oliver at all. Bart's always had feelings for Chloe. And he's not really a kid anymore, hasn't been for awhile, everyone just still treats him as the baby of the group. Oliver's glad Chloe was too naive to see it, or chose not to notice. She chose to fall in love with him instead. Oliver runs a hand over his face. "If I knew what she was going to do, I would have agreed to whatever they wanted. I would have found a way to keep you guys out of it, and I would have told them whatever they wanted to know, the Kandorians, our satellite, none of that matters more than Chloe. I wasn't here. The only ones around at the time, too busy to notice what she was planning, were Clark and Emil."

Bart huffs out a large breath. "Dude, just came back from the dead and he was busy hunting down Lex 2.0 or 2.10, whatever, point is..." he shakes his head and plants his hands on his hips for about a millisecond, pausing in thought. "And Emil's just... well Chloe could run circles around him. I should have been here. I could have been here. Damn it, they knew exactly just when and where to hit us. You guys should have called me back. John can tap into whatever's going down from halfway around the planet. You could have relayed a message through him. You know I could have got back here in a flash. I could have done that wiring at the Earth Station and been in and out just like that," he says with a snap of his fingers. He suddenly stops his half blur pacing and drops into Chloe's swivel chair. "So what's the plan now?"

Oliver lets out a long breath and runs his hands down his jeans. "I don't know. Clark is thinking of being more visible and of coming up with a disguise for his regular identity. I'm thinking he's onto something there. If we can make our two identities separate enough, we can take this show on the road, get out there, work in the daylight and still keep our regular identities a secret."

Bart sighs. "Oliver, seriously, do you think that's gonna work? With all the tech and surveillance they have nowadays?"

Oliver shrugs. "We've got hoods and the specs provides some cover too, plus we should all start using the distorters. We've gotta start working with the boys in blue, like John, establish valuable cred."

Bart stops pacing. "I already have a good rep with the Deputy Commish in Keystone. Vaughn on the otherhand's an idiot," he says with a snort.

Oliver cracks a smile. "If they were all good at their jobs, we wouldn't need to do what we do."

"So you think she's alive? That she's out there?"

Oliver sighs and rubs at his forehead tiredly. "It's been two weeks and nothing, no clue, no note... but I won't believe she's dead. Not unless I see her body with my own eyes," he finishes, his voice breaking at the end.

Bart swallows painfully and looks away. He doesn't trust himself to say anything right now but he feels the same. She'd want them to stick together, she wouldn't want them to blame each other or start pulling apart, going solo again and abandoning the team. He squares his jaw and meets Oliver's gaze finally. He'll be the hero she always believed he could be, she always had faith he could do whatever she asked. He'd make her proud.

.

**Sonora, California**

It had taken Chloe a couple of weeks of mail orders from various computer hardware websites, never ordering more than one piece from each, to avoid rousing suspicion, she scoured local tech shops for cables and surge protectors, power cords and such, and found a good local electrician to rewire her circuit board so she wouldn't overload it once she got her system up and running. A lot of time and many dollars later, she'd put together her mini-Watchtower system and had withdrawn a healthy sum from her Cayman fund, to transform her spare bedroom into her Big Sister spy room. It was nowhere near as powerful as the setup Emil had put together for her, but she wouldn't be attracting any government attention or leaving any traceable footprints on her searches, so while it was bare-bones, it would still do the job.

When Tess had given Ollie the access codes for Checkmate's mainframe after she'd been taken, she'd kept them on file for a rainy day. They'd reset the encryption keys of course, but their servers weren't unhackable, and considering she had their IP addresses, breaking through their firewalls and running her IP blocking program, she was in and out in five minutes, before they could trace her.

Considering they'd been the only ones who had been after them before, she thought they were best place to start looking for answers. Nabu only showed her snippets of the future, flashes and they were so quick that even now she wasn't completely sure how to process the information she'd been given or what chronology they followed. Two people had been frequent fixtures however, and those two people were going to be thorns in her heroes paths for a long time to come. Amanda Waller and Lex Luthor. Obviously stories of their demise had been greatly exaggerated. With Lex she shouldn't have been surprised, he was an manipulative genius and he always had a plan B, C, and if all else failed disappear and take your enemy by surprise. It had worked for when they'd gone up against Luthor Sr. back in the day. She snorted at the memory, it was hard to believe that she was naive enough to think that one Luthor could be better than the other back then. Lex was his father's son, Lionel had only redeemed himself through Jor-El's forced intervention. The A.I. taking Lionel as his vessel had made him a changed man. Maybe even made him reckless and caused him to go slightly mad in the end. Having two minds trying to steer the same boat never worked well for anyone, save for the professionals that treated them. Shrinks made a killing from headcases like that.

Zod might have torched Checkmate's headquarters, but their server farm under the building had remained in-tact, and obviously with the alien threat gone (which no one was really believing anyway, considering a few side projects that she'd seen blip on her screen), they'd decided to simply rebuild instead of relocate.

Her name was checked off in nice bold read lettering, Terminated. They didn't have her picture on file, but they'd added in her physical stats; hair blonde, eyes green, height 5'5. They listed her aliases as Watchtower, and they had Chloe Sullivan down with a question mark beside it. Obviously, no one on their staff knew how to do good old fashioned hands on research, and none of them knew how to work a camera phone to update her profile with a snapshot of her while she'd been in their custody. Score two for the good guys.

Chloe learned of Deadshot's mission and his subsequent escape from custody after the fact, and it irritated her that she was so far from her team to be of any help. But first things first, she had to put together her arsenal, she needed equipment and a lot of it. She wasn't regularly in the field, and while Ollie had taught her hand-to-hand, how to shoot and use various weapons, all she had right now was the glock Andrea had taken from Watchtower for her.

It would be another two weeks before she felt prepared enough to take to the field, and another three weeks before she got her man. But not before she lost Carter, and only by sheer luck had she rescued Bart in time. Deadshot was successfully in FBI custody and he was in isolation in a maximum security prison, where he would stay until his trial. Checkmate was still out there, and she doubt Rick wouldn't give up on whatever his mission was - all of them dead or on the team, but at least she had one less expertly trained, soulless killer after her heroes. It pained her to know that it was Carter's fate to die. She'd seen him take the bullet a through and through from behind twice. First from what the Helmet had revealed to her, and the second time in person when she'd been too late to save him. He'd been completely unprepared for it, but even so he'd looked so peaceful, lying in the middle of the street staring up at the sky.  
_  
"Love is sacrifice. Love is unending. Nabu knows... Would you sacrifice your sanity to save the Archer?"_

Chloe accepted the cost, she shouldered her burden willingly. The flashes of things she saw, the darker images, death and pain, along with the memories of her torture and Oliver's at Rick's hands still gave her nightmares, but she was coping better. Even though she'd seen it happen, Carter's death still rattled her and hit her hard.

She shed tears for him while remembering him say that his soul would be free, destined to meet his soul mate again in the next life. Shayera had been waiting for him, and now he was free to go to her. Soul mates - the idea made her heart pinch painfully. It would have been nice if she believed in such a thing for herself. That maybe when this screwed up life was over, that she might find her Ollie again. That maybe in that life, they wouldn't spend so much time pretending they didn't know exactly what they meant to each other.

As she hoped, Oliver moved back to Star City, his hometown. Where he'd first begun his hero's journey. But the move hadn't come without tragedy. He'd only moved back permanently after Vordigin had escaped federal prison, put Roy in hospital and caused a downtown overpass to collapse. Killing twenty-three people and injuring at least a hundred others. Sandra Hawke was among the dead.

Not sure that he would understand the significance of Vordigan's move, Chloe had sent a newspaper article to his office anonymously. Highlighting Sandra's name, and the fact that she was survived by her son, Connor Hawke, her 13-year-old boy who hadn't been found in the wreckage.

-.-


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**November 2010  
Valhalla Cemetery, Metropolis**

"We're here to day, to lay to rest Carter Hall. Loved by his friends, respected by the archaeological community, peers and colleagues alike. He survived his wife Shayera, but always said to me that while to go on without her was painful, he had a duty to mentor the younger generation in what it means to uphold and serve justice, also to tutor them in the Earth's rich history. He said he took comfort in the knowledge that when his time was at an end, that he would meet his wife again. We wish you well my friend. Rest in peace." Charles bows his gray head and touches the lid of the cherry wood coffin, before moving aside so others can pay their last respects.

Chloe watches the gathering from her black rental sedan parked by the edge of the lake. The whole Justice Society team are there, new recruits along with the older serving and retired members. Oliver's there and so is Clark. And strangely, so is Lois. Chloe muses that she must have met Carter while on her trek through Africa, before deciding she was meant to stay with Clark and work as his partner after all. Seeing him for the first time in weeks makes her cry. She's already teetering on the edge of sanity after watching Carter bleed out, helpless to do anything but call 911, which she's sure she witnessed at least half a dozen others do too.

Seeing Oliver standing so tall while tears stain his cheeks, watching respectfully as the coffin is slowly lowered into the ground, the pull to go to him, to comfort him in his loss of another friend, a fellow hero, share in their grief, be each others support, but she can't. She has a strong suspicion they're watching. She can feel it in her sixth sense, it's making her nervous. Five minutes is long enough. She arrived late, knowing what time the burial was, just to briefly pay her respects and she could leave quickly.

Starting the car, and pulling out of park, she can barely make her hands turn the wheel. Her foot won't move on the gas peddle. Her body is fighting her brain's command to leave before she's noticed. Finally, with insurmountable effort, she manages to pull into the lane and drive away. But not without watching Oliver the whole time with half her gaze trained on her rear-view mirror.

A painful sob, tears from her lips, and her eyes blur as he disappears from view when she leaves the cemetery. She knew it would be difficult coming back to Metropolis and if it weren't for the dire need of her heroes, she wouldn't have. The cost to her heart is great, and she's beginning to doubt she has the will to continue being invisible to them.

.

**Two days later**

The door swings shut with a slam but not before Bart drops into his couch, sprawling cross it on his back. He sighs when her realizes that the windows are all open and the blinds are bellowing like crazy because it's so windy outside. "Darn it." He was hoping to just kick his shoes off and fall asleep. Oliver's been running him ragged searching for any sign of Chloe on ever possible lead Victor can dig up. So far they've all be dead-ends. There's no trace of Chloe Sullivan anywhere. Sure there's even hardly any paper documentation left. Everything's digital, paper records go back for about ten years before they're uploaded in digital form and the paper record is destroyed. Their best source had been the Daily Planet, but aside from her mentioned abduction by Davis Bloom, and a small obit mention about being Henry James Olsen's ex-wife, and the director of the Isis Foundation, and her name is on the lease for the Watchtower apartment but other than that there's nothing more recent.

Tiredly getting up, he winces when his sore feet hit the cold floor. They're still working on cushier, more impact and friction reducing, running shoes. He limps, doing his best to ignore the sudden fierce nagging of his dime-size blisters to pull the windows closed.

Chloe's watching his apartment from two doors across, she's set up a spy cam in the planter box outside so she knows when he comes and goes, or who else might visit. She knows from hacking their system that Carter, Clark and Ollie were already marked. They'd already moved on Carter, Victor wasn't even in their system which she was relieved over, A.C. was but the team hadn't heard from him in months, he'd been busy with ocean business, so she highly doubted Checkmate even where or how to track him and Dinah... well, Dinah never stayed put in one place long enough to make herself a target, and she was pretty crafty with disguises. If she was working an undercover job at the moment, one could guarantee that they'd never peg her as Dinah Lance or the Black Canary. That only left Bart left on their hit list. And she wasn't going to let him out of her sight.

Peeking through her telephoto-lens, fixed with a special light spectrum filter trained at the building cross the street, she scanned up and down the windows looking for a possible sniper or infrared beams to indicate he was being watched. Her heart froze when she saw an open window. It was about to rain out. Either the person was about to close it, or they had it open for another reason. She switched her camera to remote feed, to send the visuals to her PDA, and quickly slipped into her costume, cursing the fact she didn't have super-speed.

She managed to burst through his door, just as her PDA showed Deadshot hoisting his rifle and pointing it out the window. She dove at him. Screaming a warning would have been useless. People rarely obeyed barked commands unless they trusted, respected or feared the person shouting the order. Considering her mask was had a built in voice distorter, even if Bart was operating on a full speed tanks, heard her and moved, the bullet could still graze him, marking him with Task Force X's tracking nanites.

Her nonobot-suit, modeled on the technology Dr. Groll used to create Lana's Prometheus suit, was impervious to anything larger than a micron, it also gave her enhanced speed and increased strength. The nanite skin on her black catsuit regenerated almost instantaneously, so even if she was shot at, or cut the nanites absorbed and defected the impact before it could harm her.

Throwing him to the ground, she feels the bullet whiz past her ear. "Stay down," she orders him sharply.

Bart's stares up at her wide eyed. He's too shocked to move. She goes to the window, hoping that she moved faster than he could track. Using her enhanced speed, she aims the grenade launcher at his apartment window. There's a hollow thump and the canister flies across the street.

Bart snatches the weapon out of her hands, and she has to knock him out before he can try anything else.

The gas canister explodes and she can see the smoke starting to pour out the open window. Hopefully he breathed a little of it in before he could escape the room. If he did, then he stood start feeling the effects of the knock out drug soon.

Chloe slips her glasses on and switches to thermal and x-ray vision. A lot of her equipment was already in existence, it was about who you know and how much you were willing to part with to get it. Busting up major drug transactions, and investing in a few less than kosher deals with Roulette kept her in the black, with a regular stream of income to keep her operation a float. That and she wasn't above doing a little freelance investigating work for corporations wanting more thorough background and finance checks on possible trading partners to make it look like she had a regular 9 to 5 to pay the bills.

Chloe saw a figure matching Deadshot's physical profile making a rapid run from the vicinity of the room. If he had a ride waiting, pursuing him was going to be difficult. She liked operating covert, but if he forced her out in the open, she was more than ready to play hard ball with him. She wasn't going to let him get anymore of her guys.

In order to handle the infected materials they'd used to mark her heroes, the strike team had to be immune. At least she was going on that assumption considering she'd found notes about a deactivation nanobot in the agency's system. She needed a sample of his blood, to send along with her message to Emil.

Chloe crawls out the window and jumps to the fire escape landing a short distance below, wincing a little as she straightens, she realizes that while her suit is invulnerable, she isn't. And her boots be robust, steel-toed with great soles, but a two story drop to the landing still feels like a jump that jars all the way to her teeth. Next purchase on her checklist, that snazzy memory cloth, base-jumping cape Batman has.

Continuing to track him, she catches up with him as he clears the jump to the roof top of the building next door that has a big enough open area, for a helicopter maneuver between Keystone's skyscrapers.

"Drop the gun."

"You honestly think you're faster than me, sweetheart?" he says not lowering his revolver.

Chloe smirks at him. "Wanna try me?"

They both pull the trigger, Chloe's forced back a step from the impact. Her suit has stopped and crushed the bullet however. She shakes off the sting in her midsection. First time she's actually taken a bullet. It wasn't fun at all. Pity the test dummy wasn't designed to reveal possible bruising. She tells herself to suck it up, at least she isn't dead. Deadshot on the other hand. He's staring at his chest, where a metal dart protrudes his leather vest by two inches.

"What the hell, woman." He staggers backward a few steps before falling on his ass. "You're like him? Clark Kent..."

Chloe laughs, the distorter making it sound dark and hollow. It gave her chills, and she could see it was having a similar effect on Deadshot. "No, I'm a little less black and white. Or should I say red, white and blue. He's the hero, I'm your worst enemy." She strikes him across the face, breaking his nose. He's already unconscious now, the drugs having knocked him out. He'll wake up with a broken nose and a killer headache though. Collecting her blood sample from his generous nosebleed, she ties him up and hoists him over her shoulders. Even with her amped up strength, the guy weighs her down considerably, and as she looks over the side of the building she sighs. She's not looking forward to the trek down, or the trip across town to make her delivery.

Bart sits up putting the heel of his palm to his eyes, he is still seeing three of everything. It's eerily quiet outside, with the exception of numerous sirens, steadily growing louder outside his window. He rushes to hang his head outside to look, while hoping around to pull on his boots. He blur-strips down to his costume, and takes off in a gust to following the squad cars.

He has to scratch his head in amusement when he sees what all the commotion is about. There on the steps of the Keystone Metro P.D. is Deadshot. Stuck to his chest is a note that Commissioner Vaughn read before crumpling it in his hand in annoyance.

When he tosses it, Bart speeds over picks it up and speeds back to his spot in the alley. The note reads,

_"The Feds are on their way, you can handle babysitting till they arrive right, Vaughn?"_

He just about doubles over cackling with laughter. Whoever she is, this lady has spunk.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**January 2011  
Star City General Hospital**

Roy's shoulder is strapped up tight and his arm's in a sling. His legs in a cast and his face looks like one big swollen red and purple bruise.

Oliver winces watching Roy propped up in his bed, from where he's standing outside in the hall. He schools his expression, and closes the distance to the room, rapping lightly on the door frame. "How you feelin'?"

Roy groans and tries to sit up straighter. "I know you told me I could do with more training, but I thought you were just being... I'm sorry I let you down."

"No Roy," Oliver says sternly. "You didn't let me down. I let you down. I've been spending so much time going back and forward. You were never supposed to be here without back up for so long. This is my city, I started this and by training you... I brought him to you. And I left you alone out there. I'm sorry."

"Not your fault," Roy grunts disapprovingly. "I got cocky. I thought I had him, turns out he played me. He played me for the amateur I am and people died."

Oliver squeezes his good knee. "We're human, we make mistakes. We're gonna make mistakes. If we always think about how many people we didn't save, we're never going to get up in the morning. Heal up, start training again like I told you too, find a new tutor, a better one. This is not your time to punch out."

Roy doesn't look him in the eye, he turns to look out the window. "So I heard you've got a new apprentice."

Oliver chuckles. "Not exactly. She's learned all she's going to from me. Maybe you could teach each other a few things."

Roy turns his head and meets Oliver's gaze. "So you're bring her here?"

Oliver nods. It's time he came home. And it feels right. After all, this was where he grew up. He walked the streets to the Queen Industries Tower with his Mom all the time. He remembers riding the Star Express with her to come and visit his Dad at the office. He remembers family picnics in the park. He would have loved to have brought Chloe here. He would have loved to shown her his family home. He would have loved her with him period. He doesn't know how long he's gone quiet or what his expression told Roy, but his young friend is watching him with concern.

"I heard from Vic, still no sign of her?"

Oliver sucks in a deep breath and lets it out slowly before trusting himself to answer. He shakes his head. "Sometimes it's like I can feel her, like she's close by. But I can never see her and I've always trusted my instincts before. Maybe I'm going crazy..."

Roy puts a hand on Oliver's shoulder. "You loved her. It's not crazy."

"I still love her," Oliver says his voice breaking. "She's out there, somewhere."

-.-

Chloe knew he was back, and that she was pushing herself again by even being in the same zip code as him, but she knew Oliver wasn't going to find the answers on his own. So far there was no real indication he'd even understood her message.

Connor hadn't been with his mother when she died in the accident, because he hadn't been living with her anymore. Chloe looked into it and interviewed his school principle over the phone, explaining that she was an old family friend and wanted to look out of the boy now that he'd lost his mother. Sandra hadn't had a will, no living relatives or insurance. The State had handled her funeral. The principle explained that Connor was having disciplinary issues in school, getting into fights, falling behind in his grades. His mother seemed to think he'd benefit from a more specialized education but hadn't told her where she'd be enrolling him. Chloe thanked the woman for her time and started with the more gritty research. It had meant buying a train ticket and traveling to Star City.

She locked up her 'Eagle Eye' room, handed her keys to Ashley, her neighbor and explained that she'd be away for a few days for work - her private consultancy job. Ashley knew the drill, collect the mail, water the plants, call her if anyone came around asking for her. Ashley knew not to worry about calling if someone tripped the alarm system. Chloe explained before that she had security cameras and could remotely deactivate the alarm if it went off accidentally. It had happened once, a stray cat tried squeezing in through her upstairs bathroom window, tripping the alarms. The sudden alarm had been loud enough to startle it, causing it to fall backwards, landing in the bushes below.

Nicholas had asked her once what kind of consulting she did. Chloe had smiled and showed him what she could do with her PDA. She said she was in the identity and corporate protection business. Which in a way, was sort of true. After that he was a little less weird-ed out by what Ashley affectionately called her quirky, slightly eccentric personality. Chloe didn't blame him for his first impression, after all shortly after meeting them, she'd explained that she was prone to vocal outbursts in her sleep, and had implied not to be surprised if she was seen prowling her house breaking things or wondering the garden in her pajamas. And that wasn't including the fact that to outsiders, she must seem freakishly attached to all her electronic gizmos.

Once in Star City, she didn't waste a minute staying on task. She interviewed neighbors, and then hacked Sandra's bank records for transaction history. Anything that might give her a clue as to where she might send Connor. Then there it was, she found a large purchase made through an online travel website. Logging into their system, she found that Sandra had purchased two tickets to Delhi, India. Following that there were two tour bus tickets to Ladakh. It didn't take a genius to piece together their destination. Ladakh was known for their monasteries. It seems that when Sandra had hinted that she wanted Connor to have a specialized education, she had something very particular in mind.

Chloe wondered fleetingly if Sandra had known or at least suspected Oliver's dual identity and followed his exploits all these years, because Oliver had mentioned in passing once that after leaving the sect of Master Archers, that he'd stayed in a Monastery. Ashram, if her memory served. Sandra must have believed that having his father's blood, Connor could benefit from the same teachings in meditation, focus and physical discipline that Oliver had learned. Along with some nifty lessons in Kyudo from an old Japanese master that lived there.

Chloe bought a ticket, a hopped the next flight. Trekking into the mountains to visit Ashram, where she met with Connor's teacher. Connor was on a spiritual journey through the mountains, he explained when she arrived hoping to see the boy. Chloe wondered how wise it was to send a thirteen-year-old alone into the desolate, winter wilderness, but the old man simply smiled, reading her concern. He bowed his head in understanding and said, "It is a test, but the boy under a watchful eye. He is in no true danger."

The fact that he recognized Connor's name and his mother's picture, Chloe felt satisfied that she had the right place. She wished the Master well and told him to send her a message if Connor ever needed help of any kind. The number was to a secure re-routed number and considering she'd set up this number specially for the monastery to use, she'd know not to answer if anyone else tried to use it.

Arriving back home, she planted a fake request for his student transcript in the school's database, the requesting institution, Ashram Monastery.

Chloe had told Andrea that she would remind Oliver that he had family. That he had responsibilities, and that he needed to move on with his life and not spend his days searching for answers or vengeance that would never give him what he really wanted. It looked like he was doing exactly what she had seen he would. He was being the hero, he was protecting his city and he was putting the bad guys behind bars. That left the dirtier business to her. Like tracking down Lex and what he was up to.

-.-


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**September 2012  
Star City**

It was a particularly slow night, and with Mia and Roy trying to one up each other, Oliver decided to let them have at it. However, it didn't leave him with much to do, but brood at home. Dinah was in town again. And just being around her, that spark that had always been there between them, the easy banter, the way she always pulled him in two directions, sometimes wanting to both throttle her or smack her on the behind at the same time. Why on earth did she wear such a tight, short, barely there costume? It hadn't ever really bothered him this much before, but it was also before Hal pointed out his problem. Since Chloe, he hadn't dated, hadn't done the playboy scene and he certainly hadn't had sex. For a man of his age, who had been excessively sexually active even while in committed relationships, to have had nothing for close to two years, well it was safe to say he agreed with Hal's quip that he was sexually frustrated, and had a terminal case of 'blue balls', Hal's words- he was nothing if not brutally honest.

Oliver ran a hand over his face and stared into the glass of amber liquid he was rolling between his fingers. Checkmate hadn't made a move on any of them since Deadshot had landed in Supermax. And according to Clark, he was still there. Emil had dosed them with a mysterious antidote to the micro-trackers that they'd been implanted with and they hadn't seen a peep of covert-government-op trouble since. So why hadn't she resurfaced? Why was she still in hiding? Unless the cyanide antidote hadn't worked, or it hadn't even been an antidote at all. His face fell and he felt his throat tightening. He kept hanging on to this vain sliver of hope that she'd leave him some clue that she was still alive, that one day she'd be back. Almost two years and nothing.

His doorbell rang and he knocked back the drink before walking back inside from the patio to answer his door. He buzzed whoever it was in, without bothering to see who the visitor was. He really couldn't care less who showed up. If it was a hitman, it might make him feel better to break a few bones.

"Damn, you look like hell."

Oliver looked up to see Dinah all decked out in a green halter dress, with gold hoop earrings, her dark wig pull back into a long ponytail.

"Thanks," he said indifferently. "Going somewhere?" he asked with a nod in her direction, his tone neutral.

"Yes, we're going downtown. Get your coat."

"Do I look like I need a pep talk?" Oliver argued with a low growl. He wasn't going to say it, but green looked wrong on her. He'd never been in a position where he wanted to tell a girl that he didn't like what she was wearing. He didn't have female friends for that reason. He didn't give fashion advice, he didn't do chick flicks and he certainly didn't go dress, shoe or handbag shopping. The models and actresses he dated in the past knew they could take their pick of designer labels and he charge his account, and his PA knew what he liked and didn't like, and she not so subtly hinted to his dates what to stay away from. He had a feeling, sicing Tamara on Dinah over her fashion choice wouldn't go over well in this case.

Dinah planted her hands on her hips. "Roy says you've been hiding up here every night you're not on duty, and Hal has been bleeding my ears with talks of your good ol' partying days for the past week and how you're no fun anymore. This is my last day in town. You're showing me the nightlife."

"Why don't you let Hal show you. He knows it just as well as me, probably better by now," Oliver said snidely. He was beginning to get the picture now. He'd met Hal Jordan years ago in his partying days, he was a guy who knew how to have fun, spoke his mind and didn't let him get away with anything. And after learning of each other's alter-egos, Hal's work as the Green Lantern and his own as Green Arrow, they'd be come pretty close. He'd even go so far as calling him his best friend. At least, that was before he met Chloe... Seeing Dinah all dressed up, determined to get him to go out, it had Hal's handy work written all over it. His friend was about as subtle as Lois when she wanted something fixed. Hal's best friend status was about to be made redundant.

Dinah wasn't budging. "It's been two years, Ollie," she said quietly.

Oliver looked at her sharply. "If I go, you won't mention that ever again."

Dinah nodded once her whole demeanor changing, her eyes suddenly looked remarkably wet. "She was my friend too."

Oliver grabbed his keys and walked past her to door. He would do anything not to have to hear her talk about Chloe. He needed to get drunk tonight. He wanted to be seriously numb, anything to make the ache in his chest quit.

Hours later with the sun glaring through his window, he stared up at the ceiling, not caring that his head throbbed, or that his mouth tasted sour or that his stomach was lurching every few seconds, his heart hurt worse than all of it.

Half resting on his chest, her arm thrown around his waist was a warm female body. Her short blonde hair tousled, looking like golden strands of silk in the sunlight. For a second, when he first woke he thought he saw Chloe, but the illusion was shattered when she mumbled in her sleep.

He'd slept with Dinah, the reality and play-by-play from the night before came rushing back and hit him like a ton of bricks. He'd drunk nearly a whole bottle of gin by himself, Dinah almost kept up with him sipping her entirely too pink cosmos. They'd stumbled back to his apartment, barely able to walk a straight line and keep themselves upright. The only fond memory had from the whole recap was the fact that he'd ripped that green dress to ribbons. She'd never be wearing it again.

Carefully, extracting himself from under her, he slipped out of bed and made it to the bathroom where he promptly threw up. He heaved until his stomach was empty and then dry heaved some more. He'd never felt this rotten before. And he knew it had very little do with how much he'd had to drink and everything to do with the feeling in his chest. He felt like he'd betrayed his heart, worse, he felt like he'd betrayed her.

Holding a hand over his face, he closed his eyes to keep the room from spinning. In his head, he kept chanting to himself - She's leaving today. She's leaving today and so am I. He finally remembered why the name Sandra Hawke seemed so familiar. He'd had a similar experience in his youth. A drunken romp. A few months later a girl had turned up while he was about to start a threesome party at his favorite nightclub. She told him she was pregnant, with his kid. He'd brushed her off angrily, believing that she was just another girl that got herself knocked up by some guy, trying to pass it off as his for money. He was a player but he wasn't stupid, he was careful, he never slept with a chick without protection. He demanded a paternity test. Three weeks later, he was stranded on an island with a whole lot of time for self analysis. He came back and looked her up, but you can't really make a leopard change its spots, he'd been cocky and ignorant, said the wrong things, made the wrong assumptions and she'd told him where he could shove his money. Angry his attempt to make amends had been thrown in his face, he'd forgotten about her and the boy. But Mercy hadn't.

Tess had found out about Sandra, misinterpreted the situation and promptly dumped him. Frustrated, he'd bid good riddance to everything and jumped into the first band of archers he could find. Impulse wasn't the only one with youthful impulse control issues. Until now, he hadn't remember anything about Sandra or the kid. His son. Someone had made the connection. Someone had sent him the newspaper clipping. He was going to find out who. And there was one person besides Chloe, he knew who could dig up just about anything you'd ever want to know.

He stood up, and held the counter until he felt steady enough to walk. He was planning a shower, then he needed to get dressed. He had a long flight ahead. He was going all the way to Gotham to visit an old friend.

.  
** October 2013**

It didn't take Lex long to surface after Cadmas Labs blew up. And once Chloe found him, it didn't take her much digging to discover what he was up to. Especially not when her mother up and disappeared from the special care facility, Oliver had secretly hidden her in.

It took months, a lot of money, even more hi-tech custom designed equipment and research that made her head spin, to plan and execute the Op to rescue her mom, and by then damage was done. Lex had gotten what he wanted, key players in Congress bending to his whim. And within a few months leading up to the polls with promises of more jobs, and throwing money at welfare groups, opening more shelters and meeting with the struggling working class in a dark economic times, he won the Presidency with almost no contest. It was sickening really.

The only consolation was that whatever he'd given her mother had kept her lucid permanently. And she'd finally been able to hold her, talk to her and ask questions that she'd longed to have answered since she was a little girl. She should have known however, that nothing beautiful or precious in her life was meant to last.

Her mother passed in her sleep only a month after her rescue. The physical and mental stresses of her abilities along with whatever drug Lex had given her, ravaged her body and her heart simply gave out. Chloe held her, unwilling to let her go for what seemed like hours, only realizing that she had to do something about her mother's body, when the birds starts chirping outside the cottage window.

Wiping her face, Chloe lowered her to the bed and snuck out of the house, if she was here when the medics and police arrived there would be questions. Questions that she wouldn't be able to answer properly and more importantly it would draw attention. Carefully, erasing any trace of herself in the little cottage she'd leased in her mother's name, she slipped into her car and drove to a nearby motel.

Starting up her laptop, she opened her call forwarding program and she made the call.

_"You have reached the international exchange, how my I direct your call?"_

"This is Lucy Lane. I'm overseas at the moment, but since my cousin died I've been looking out for her mom. I call her every morning really early to remind her to take her medication and this morning, she didn't pick up. I've been trying for half an hour with no answer. I wouldn't be so worried but she was in a home until last year and they were so sure she was doing better. She doesn't have anyone else checking up on her that I know of, and she lives alone. I was wondering if anyone could just check. Please, I just need to know if she's okay. My number is 011 49 5551 880."

_"It's okay sweetie, I'll forward your details to local emergency dispatch. Can I have her address?"_

Chloe pretended to flip through a book. "I got it here... it's 4781 Ferngrove Lane, Star City."

The next hour of waiting for a call back, nearly sent her crazy. She felt like the worst kind of human being alive, leaving her mother for strangers to find like that, but she didn't see how she had a choice, without just resurrecting Chloe Sullivan from the dead. In person, she'd never pass for Lucy Lane. As it was, she was sure once Moira Sullivan's name made the death register, her uncle and Lois would be all over it.

Chloe just about when crazy from the wait, but she helped pass the time by forging documents, naming Lois as her mother's executor, so she could handle all the legal proceedings that would follow her mother's burial.

She remembered what her mother had said to her before she'd gone to bed the night before. She'd patted her hand and kissed her forehead, whispering that she wished her every happiness and that someday she'd stop hiding and be able to step out into the light, free.

Chloe had kissed her mom's cheek and had smiled at her indulgently, saying that yes, maybe someday. In her head, knowing that, that someday might never come.

When the phone rang, she jumped. Snatching it up, she answered," Hello?" her voice catching.

_"Ms. Lane? This is Lt. Watts, I'm calling about your Aunt. You called the exchange earlier..."_

Chloe checked the number calling, it was from Star City Police Department. "Yes... My aunt is she okay? Was she home, can I call her talk to her?"

_"Ms. Lane, I'm sorry but your aunt... Is there anyone closer you can call? Your aunt, she passed away. The coroner says she had a heart attack. She died peacefully in her sleep. I'm so sorry. If you'd like to contact the coroner or speak to the detective that..."_

Chloe sniffled and then burst into sobs, ending the call. She stopped crying then, but tears continued to slide silently down her cheeks. She curled on her side on the motel bed, and soon fell asleep into an exhausted, restless sleep.

Her phone woke her around midday. The number was a local number. Her computer said it was from the local coroner's office.

She picked up the phone, it would be around 9 o'clock at night in Berlin. It made sense that she could be asleep. "Hello," she said groggily, sniffling.

_"Ms. Lane. We need someone to ID and claim your aunt's body. Is there someone closer we can contact? Are you the only next of kin?"_

Chloe chewed her bottom lip. She could have them call Lois... Her heart twisted in her chest. "My sister... she lives in Metropolis."

.  
**Star City**

It was three years since she'd said her last goodbye. Now she was saying goodbye to another loved one and she couldn't even do that properly. Her mother said she like Star City, that the gardens there were so pretty. It was the Japanese Gardens in Adam Heights that she loved the most, the trees bloomed in spring with pink and white cherry blossoms and when the flowers started to fall, she'd fondly said it was like watching it snow without the cold.

So Chloe disguised herself as Lois and purchased a plot, in the closest cemetery she could find to that garden and arranged a short ceremony to be officiated by a local funeral company.

As she suspected, Lois flew over within a day of getting the call from the Coroner. She traced her movements from the GPS in her phone and followed her through what footage she could from traffic cameras, bank machines and from buildings that had remote security feeds. She saw her cousin's distress and it made her cry that they couldn't share and get through this together. It was like watching Lois lose her mother, Chloe's Aunt Ella all over again, this time the grief hitting that much harder since it was her mother they had lost.

Towards the end of the day, when Lois realized that someone had already made the proper arrangements, Clark appeared. Chloe shut down her computer, and checked her watch. Tomorrow her mother's remains would be cremated, and in the afternoon the funeral home would perform a short burial ceremony.

She would let the lease on the cottage lapse, even though someone at the police department would probably notify the agency to say that the tenant was now deceased.

She'd been gone from her townhouse for six weeks straight. It was the longest stretch she'd ever been away. She would need to put together a solid cover story, just in case Ashley and Nicolas asked any questions. They were good neighbors and she enjoyed the privacy and quiet she had at her place in Sonora, she'd hate to have to move on top of everything she'd had to go through the last few months. She had been running on pure adrenaline and grim determination the whole time her mother had been missing, only breathing a little easier once she got her back, only to lose her less than four weeks later. Her head was a mess, her heart was broken, or what was left of it, and she knew she shouldn't even think about doing what she was planning but damn it, if it wasn't the last straw.

She'd had enough. He'd taken enough, well him, his government, everything. She took all the bad, all the hurt, all the pain in her world and she knew she could find one source, the catalyst behind everything. It was him.

The time came, and Chloe packed up her gear, left the motel and headed for the picturesque grounds. Chloe watched the minister standing next to the headstone. She'd had her mother cremated so that Lex couldn't take her body to experiment on even if he wanted to. Her mother's ashes buried, she bowed her head and made to leave. She was surprised to Victor and Bart there, along with Lois and Clark. She hadn't made a death announcement and she was pretty sure she hadn't paid for one. It must have been Lois. The real Lois, she thought with a sigh. Her cousin would have had the purest intentions but by printing the name Moira Sullivan in the paper, it only brought the attention of unwelcome visitors to this little ceremony. She was surprised her friends had taken the risk by showing up. But at the same time it warmed her spirit to see that they still cared for her, or at least her memory and her family.

She couldn't linger. She'd arrived before the ceremony started and she knew as the minister finished his prayer that she should leave. Her heart skipped a beat in her chest when she saw Clark look in her direction before she remembered he couldn't possibly recognize her. Her hair was darker and longer than she'd ever worn it in the past, and she was wearing a bulky winter coat, not to mention she had custom lead-line shades to obscure half her face from prying eyes. Chloe lifted her chin, looking past the small gathering and started down the steps of the grand mausoleum she'd been standing in. Without falling into the run which she felt urged to do, she walked back to her car. Climbing in, she turned the key bringing the engine to life and drove away without a backward glance. She'd sell the car after she left the city. It wasn't as though she made attachments to anything material or otherwise these day anyway.

-.-


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**April 2014  
Ashram Monastery, Lahdak**

Connor watched as Oliver demonstrated how to hold a Kyudo long bow, and how to feel the arrow hit the mark, even before the release. The right posture, the right frame of mind, body and soul moving as one.

It was a treat to watch. His Master had said that Oliver was his best student, he'd learned all that he had taught him, and surpassed his Master's skill. Connor knew now that it was no coincidence that this man had turned up almost two years ago. He'd never said who he was, or where he'd come from, but Connor knew that he was someone important, and he was an American. The man had become his friend, his mentor and later his confidant. As time passed, he realized that they shared many similar qualities, not all of a positive trait. In a moment or reflection and honesty, Oliver had confessed that he knew his mother, not as well as he would have liked, and was saddened to hear of her passing. Before then, Connor had hoped that his father would be someone like Oliver. It wasn't until he looked at him, really looked at him that night that he realized what Oliver was trying to tell him without words. He couldn't say that he was his father, that would lead to having to explain where he'd been all these years, why he'd never met him before now. So he just excepted what his father had given him, happy he was there now. Forgiving for a past that couldn't be changed. After all it was part of the life he'd chosen to adopt, to forgive those who need it, to practice a life of diligence, peace and harmony.

Tonight was odd however, after they'd left the archery range, he'd chatted about the day after his first quest. About a woman who'd come to the monastery looking for him after his mother died, Connor had brought it up, curious to whether his father might know her. Before that moment, he'd never seen anything other than genuine interest, humor or studious attention in his father's expression. A troubled shadow had crossed his face briefly, before he asked casually, if he knew anything about her.

Connor had told him, Master had said her name was Susan. And that he'd made a sketch of her so that he might recognize her upon his return. There was also a number, but he'd called it last year, curious to know her, but it was no longer in service. He knew she must be important, because after Connor showed him the picture, his father had asked if he could keep it. He'd kept his tone neutral, but it wavered a little, almost pleading. His eyes betraying a profound sadness, yet excited hope, he'd never seen before. Connor had surrendered it willingly.

He hadn't seen Oliver for a few days after that. It had worried him, and he almost left to search for him but the Master had assured him that Oliver would be back. And he did return. Grim-faced and quiet, yet he betrayed no hint of what he was feeling or thinking to Connor. Oliver never discussed where he'd gone, and Connor thought it best, never to mention the mysterious woman again. No matter how beautiful she was, or how much of her soul was betrayed in the way Master had captured her eyes. When he was ready, his father would share his pain, whatever it was or how _Susan_ was a part of that.

Oliver spent three days away from the Monastery in the nearby city speaking to Bruce. He sent him the sketch by fax and asked him to search for anything on a woman named Susan from around twenty two months ago. Flight manifests out of the US, or flights coming into Dehli. Bruce had argued that a drawing and a first name wasn't a lot to go on. Oliver had scoffed at him, and said he'd worked with less. He'd also told Bruce that her name was once Chloe Sullivan. Cousin to Lois Lane, daughter of Gabe and Moira Sullivan. Bruce said he'd look into it, but offered no guarantees of finding anything. He explained that if she'd done as thorough job of erasing her past as Oliver said she did, then it was a sure bet that she'd keep herself invisible and continued to erase and cover her tracks in whatever she did now.

Oliver returned to Ashram, the whole trek back torn over what he was supposed to do now. It was the first solid lead he'd had in years. Thinking back, he realized it was Chloe that had led him back to Star City, it was Chloe that had led him to Connor. His son. He couldn't just leave the boy now and spend the rest of his life chasing a ghost. That's what she was to everyone now. No one believed him, when he said she was still alive. Either that, or they'd accepted that she didn't want to be found and had moved on with their lives. Chloe. Just the thought of her made his chest ache, and his eyes sting. He'd moved on from being angry to being hurt. She hadn't given him a choice, they were supposed to be a team. Fighting side by side, complete and total honesty between them. He'd promised her he'd never fail her, never leave her and in turn she'd promised the same. Now where were they? As much has half of him wanted to grab hold of this life-line and run with it, not giving up until he pinned her down, the other half of him knew that he shouldn't. That he couldn't leave behind this boy who looked up at him with stars in his eyes- clear, hopeful, trusting brown eyes that were mirrors of his own. Connor needed him. Chloe made it obvious that she didn't.

.

**September 2020  
Gotham City**

After reading about Oliver's engagement and subsequent marriage to Dinah, Chloe threw herself into her work more obsessively than ever. She lived and breathed to outsmart the enemy, and keep abreast of any government clandestine operations. It served her well, to tap into as many resources she had available but it also meant she kept having to update and upgrade her cloak security and server hardware. There were two pesky people that kept trying to track her down. One of them had come precariously close last year. She'd smiled a little when she finally found out her hacker's identity. It was no other than the big Bat himself. Trust the master sleuth to come after her. Pity he didn't understand that she was on his side, and it was the only reason she didn't plague his system with a nasty virus from almost compromising her database security.

She'd discovered a hit made on Batman buy the group that had targeted Superman the year before. Having failed in their attempt to kills Sups, they were going after his best friend. Batman had a large following for haters of his own too, but thankfully, lately, most of them was still safely locked up in Arkham. But considering how frequently they kept popping up on the streets, she wouldn't be surprised if there was a mole helping them or a secret revolving door that led off the Island. She was keen to hit the streets again and take this guy down, they had history and she was going to send him right back where he belonged. Whoever had paid handsomely to get him out, could kiss her ass. After which she was going to track them down and nail them with aiding, abetting and conspiracy to commit murder too.

That's why she was currently lurking on this thin ledge, hugging a gargoyle and avoiding the overhead spotlights of the blimps. She'd spent the previous day strolling the city, taking pictures figuring out where Bats would most likely patrol and what vantage points Deadshot might use to take his mark. This was a spot that Batman had to pass every night. It was one of the highest points in the center of the city. It would be hard to miss any activity going on below from here. She could even see two separate railway routes from where she was.

"I been waiting a long time for you, sweetheart."

Chloe stiffened, she moved her hand slowly for her gun. It was strapped to her side in a shoulder holster. With her cloak covering her back, he wouldn't see her hand move, if she was deliberate and careful, she could just take it and...

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

If her heart was racing for being caught out off guard before, it was thudding faster and harder now that this new familiar voice broke the quiet, so far above the din of the city streets.

"Nah-ah," the cheery voice said. "See, that wasn't so bad. Told you I could handle this one, Batsy."

Bart took his finger off his comm. and turned around to see if the masked gorgeously formed, hero he'd just saved was going to offer him a thank you kiss, or even a hug. He pouted and frowned when the spot on the ledge where she'd been was mysteriously vacant. Deadshot was unconscious and disarmed at his feet. "What, no thank you?" he called out petulantly into the dark night sky.

Bruce landed on the roof top, his boots not making a sound as he glided over to where Flash zipped from one end of the rooftop to the other in search of the invisible caped hero. She had to be a newbie, he'd never seen her on any of his previous visits to Gotham.

"Dude, who was she and why was Deadshot after her?"

Bruce frowned. "I suspected that I wasn't the real target. While I'm sure there are plenty who want Batman gone, none I know could afford the hit he was paid to carry out. That's not counting the fact that he was walked out the front gates of his Supermax prison in West Virginia by the warden himself. They might as well have thrown him a farewell party."

"But this guy was on the FBI's most wanted for a decade before they got him, and he didn't even serve ten years of his triple-life sentence, what gives?

"Corruption, greed, fear, manipulation, take your pick. Single out the right people, play their weaknesses, you'll get what you want. Someone wanted this guy out, and someone wanted that girl dead. We have to figure out why. And before that, we need more on her."

Before Batman could lean down to pick up their prisoner, his legs where taken from under him and he fell back heavily. Bart tried to take the guy down, but found himself seriously woozy and sluggish, not even managing to swipe at him accurately before going down in a heap.

Batman was on his feet again and giving chase while Deadshot took a dive off the roof, before shooting out a line and descending to the streets below, disappearing to the crowds below.

"This is why I work alone," Bruce grumbled. "At least you had the sense to disassemble his gun or you'd be full of holes instead of unconscious," he said to Bart's prone body. Lifting his friend by the shoulders, he injected him with a counter drug, and soon Bart was shaking his head, his eyes rolling wildly while he tried to feel around for purchase.

"Whoa, what happened?"

Bruce gave him a grim look. "You didn't tie him up, or check him over properly. He was probably faking the whole time."

Flash fisted his hands angrily. "I knocked him out, fair and square. And what's your problem? You let him get away. Getting rusty, grandpa?"

Bruce glared at him, his jaw clenched tightly. "I planted a tracker on him," he said pulling out the computer in his belt. The blinking light said he was headed for the courthouse. Bruce frowned. "Can you run?"

Bart tilted his head. "Can you keep up?" Without waiting for his friend in black, Bart took off in a breeze.

Bruce sighed, the kid grew on you like a freckle. One that just popped out of nowhere and you were forced to get used to, till someone eventually even called it a beauty mark, and you had to kinda agree it wasn't all bad. But damn if he didn't make you want to knock him on his ass once in awhile.

They found Deadshot, his dismantled gun tied to his chest, unconscious with a dart sticking out of his neck, a note taped to his forehead addressed to Commissioner Gordan, saying the FBI were on their way to make a special pick up. Could he handle security detail until the troops arrived?

Bruce crouched down and plucked a single black orchid from the man's leather jacket lapel. Curious, that a hero would leave a calling card.

Bart looked around, wondering just who their mysterious hero was, suspecting it may have been the woman from before. He just about yelped in excitement when he spotted her. "Gotchya," he exclaimed.

He zipped his way through the crowd but when he arrived at the spot he'd seen her standing, she was no where to be found. There was something about her that felt familiar.

"Close your mouth, and don't look so surprised. She vanished on you once already. I'm thinking she's onto you, she knows your game, and she's playing it smart," Bruce said with a small smirk.

Flash folded his arms across his chest. "That reputation is so undeserved. I treat women with the utmost respect. My grandma always said I was the perfect gentlemen."

Bruce snorted. "Yes, you are. You just smother the poor unsuspecting females that catch your eye, till they resort to begging for witness protection to escape you."

Bart narrowed his eyes at the Bat and glared. "Hardi-har-har, very funny. Laugh it up, big guy. Like you're such a smooth ladies man. Don't see any beautiful senoritas lounging out in your dark dingy cave."

Batman scowled and stalked away, calling the Batmobile and leaving Flash to find his own way back. It was a moot point that he was making though. It would have been punishment for him to be forced to ride in a vehicle that didn't break the sound barrier.

As he suspected, Bart was already at the main computers typing away faster than he could track. He sighed. "My system wasn't designed for your brand of abuse you know."

Bart ignored him, waving at two of the screens on his right. "If freeze framed a couple images of our mysterious lady. I only managed to find one clear headshot, but her mask screws up the facial recognition parameters. Do you have a program that can take it off?"

Bruce grinned. "Take what off? Her mask or her clothes?" It had the desired effect. Flash stopped blur bashing his keyboard.

"You can do that?" he said his eyes wide, his voice squeaking slightly.

Bruce glided up the last few stairs and brushed him out of the way. "No, but I can tell the program to make a guess at her bone structure under the mask. Did you access the blimp footage?"

"Everything, Bats. Ran through all the footage, I can process faster than your CPU here can keep up. I looked through all the footage for the last hour, on all the cameras the city's got. She's careful. Doesn't look directly up and keeps to the shadows of the blimp routes. She's good."

"Well, none of us are perfect." He tapped the keyboard twice and freeze framed a new image. "This one's a clear full body shot from a traffic camera across the street from the courthouse. It'll work for a spectrum profile. Computer, run profile match, access catalogue for the last 7 days. She had to be in the city scoping the place before tonight."

The computer built a profile and compiled the images found. Flash leaned in closer when he saw the woman without the mask. She was stunning, reddish-brown hair with golden highlights that shimmered in the afternoon sun. She was wearing over-sized designer sunglasses, and dressed appropriately for Gotham's chilly weather, in knee-high leather boots, black stockings, a tartan red skirt, white turtleneck sweater and matching red barrette. She dressed the part of the tourist, with her chunky Canon EOS camera fitted with telescopic lens, hanging from her neck

"Is she scoping out rooftops?" Bart asked, still admiring how red and perfectly bow shaped her lips were.

Bruce rolled his eyes, glad the drooling hadn't started yet. "Most likely trying to figure out my route. She might be looking for grapple scoring."

"I still want to know how she disappeared off the rooftop. I didn't hear a line fire."

Bruce nodded in agreement. "Neither did I."

_"Phantom user attempting to breech system network," _a synthesized voice announced through the cave's PA system.

Batman scowled. "That's the second time this week. Damn it. Computer block access, begin backtrace."

_"Initiated. Tracing intrusion...System match, intruder match, location... location lock. Gotham City, Robinson Park Apartments."_

.

**The upper East Side of Gotham City**

Chloe scowled and snapped her computer shut, cutting her wireless connection. She knew she was taking a risk trying to hack his system with her laptop but she couldn't wait till she got home to delete any trace of her being in Gotham. She knew Batman wouldn't let her presence go without investigation. And now that it was obvious that she'd been the target and not him, he'd be even more intent on learning more about her. She'd been detected even before she'd had a chance to plant her trojan.

There was a good chance that he would be storming this building for her any minute. She had a good chance of escape with a head start, trying to flee in plain clothes, her costume tucked safely in her suitcase. He'd only seen her in costume, he wouldn't know what she looked like.

That had been her plan until her computer bleeped a warning. She opened up the lid again and saw the last image that they'd been looking at before she'd had been forced to cut her connection. It was a picture of her from two days ago, when she'd been taking photos in the city. Well there went her plan to go Suzy Linden-Thorne and checking out like a normal person. So much for collecting her security deposit.

Pulling on her suit hurriedly, she took her essentials out of her suitcase and snapped on her utility belt, shoved her laptop and her camera in her hard-case backpack and threw open the windows. Time to go base jumping again. Good thing she didn't share Clark's fear of heights.

Bruce studied the profile the computer that had built on their mystery woman. It couldn't be a coincidence that someone had tried to hack his system while simultaneously trying to wipe any trace of the woman they were tracking off the city's surveillance records.

From the pieces of information that he'd gathered over the years, the intrusions on various highly secured systems across the country, the chatter over the agencies shared 'persons of interest' network, one name kept popping up. They called her the Black Orchid. She'd infiltrated DDS, hacked NSA, she'd even worked inside Checkmate and was said to have crippled all their operation systems for a week. They had a couple of shadowy images of her too. All in various guises- some of the physical profiles matched, where others were a little off. But anyone could wear a padded bra or a fat suit, or a wig and a mustache and still be the same person underneath. There was a common factor in all the cases listed, her calling card, a single small black orchid.

Bruce smiled slowly. "I think she's been around a lot longer than we first thought. Two years ago when Clark and I started cleaning up the meteor rock from the last meteor shower, we ran into trouble with Waller. Turns out the government took cues from Lex's old idea of creating weapons that could kill or subdue Superman and went all out. While Clark was battling their custom made Doomsday in Smallville. Waller would have unmasked me if it weren't for a spontaneous pressing matter that conveniently called her away. I was left alone with unlimited access to their computers. I never gave much thought to it, considering I got out of there with my identity in tact and the information we needed to stop Doomsday 2.0. Linking the time-lines, I'd say this was exactly the time she got to Checkmate's systems. She left the door open for me."

"So she's a good guy, right?" Flash leaned on the desktop and studied her masked picture. "You know tonight, when I saw her at the courthouse. Something about her felt familiar. Like I've seen her before."

"Why at the courthouse and not on the rooftop? You got a good look at her before she disappeared."

Bart closed his eyes remembering the scene unfold in his mind's eye. "Man, I don't believe it. It's like de'ja vu. I can't believe I forgot about that. He tapped a blurry picture of her in ninja type get up. The courthouse, Deadshot. That's the common denominator. She saved me from a bullet over nine years ago."

Bruce frowned. "What makes you think it's her."

"Well think about it. Deadshot would have a bone to pick with her. She was the one that made him miss and then hand delivered him to Commissioner Vaughn back in Keystone, almost exactly like that," he said excitedly, pointing to the picture of Deadshot in front of the Gotham City Supreme Court.

"Do you remember if there was a black orchid?"

Bart pursed his lips and folded his arms. "No, but..."

"Then it might not be the same woman."

Bart's expression brightened. "Her eyes. If we could get an shot of her eyes, I'd know for sure. I'll never forget her eyes. She had the most stunning, vivid green eyes. Like..."

Bruce forced himself not to listen to his friend's delusional ramblings and stood up to get himself a drink. If she tried to hack his system again, he was going to pay her a late night visit. For the time being, he was going to listen to his instincts that said she was working on their side. Tuning back in, he realized that Bart was still continuing on with poetic recollection of his newest infatuation's unique eyes. He rolled his eyes at Flash's antics, ten minutes ago he didn't even remember that rescue.

Bart left a short while later, still musing about his heroine, and Bruce removed the cowl. It didn't even feel strange to him that he wore it even in the sanctuary of the cave. As Batman he never removed it while in the company of others, it was a force of habit. Only a select few had ever seen him in costume, unmasked. He liked to keep it that way, even if they already knew his identity, he knew there was such a thing as shape-shifters, he'd met at least half a dozen. One could never be too careful. He was a vault of secrets, his trust wasn't earned lightly.

The computer _bleeped_ another image on screen. He'd forgotten that he'd broadened his facial analysis search parameters from just the last week, to the last ten years. The newest image was of a sketch Oliver had sent him years ago, while searching for his missing girlfriend. Bruce had looked into it, but aside from a driver's license that listed a fake address and a passport, that led him to a comic bookstore in Bedford, Indiana, he'd found nothing. Susan Linden-Thorne existed on paper, but no one knew her, she was a ghost.

Bruce looked from the sketch, to the image taken only two days ago in his city. "Well, I'll be damned," Bruce said with a smirk, his eyes brightening. "Hello, Chloe Sullivan."

_._


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**  
**Keystone City**

Bart hit his favorite burrito stop in Mexico before zipping home for a shower and a change of clothes. He'd spent a couple hours scoping out his old apartment in Keystone hoping to find clues to his mystery heroine that he might have missed before. Forensics had taken the bullet from his apartment wall as evidence, and it had been filled in and wallpapered over at least twice since he'd moved out. Seemed like a smart move to vacate the premises after someone takes shots at you. He had a new place across town, still within city limits so he could hear all the goings on around, and tune into all the local police bands.

The current occupants were out, which made it easier for him to sneak around. He was about to leave, when something urged him to hang his head outside the window. The planter box outside hadn't really been tended much since he'd been living there, the perennials looked a little over crowded, but not all that worse for wear. His grandma would be turning in her grave over these people's lack of garden TLC skills. He picked out the weeds in super-speed, his fingers slowing immediately when he felt something that didn't belong. It was a micro-camera. He's heart did an excitable jig. It couldn't possibly be from that long ago, could it?

He thought about how perfect her save had been, she hadn't come in a moment too soon. She hadn't given away her position or her advantage of surprise until the very last second. It was as though she'd been watching him, protecting him from the shadows. She'd had eyes on him. That's what his gut was telling him, and Wally had always told him to go with his gut. The theory had never served his mentor wrong, Wally West, the third Flash to wear the lightening bolt suit. Bart pondered the thought, counting his track record, he had pretty keen instincts himself. He considered himself a good judge of character, and if his spidey sense said there was danger or a person was bad news, he was almost always right. In this case, his gut was telling him that this little gadget was a clue, and that clue would help them find Black Orchid. He ran all the way back to Gotham to show his friend his prize.

Bruce was in his study, going over a journal, which he discreetly closed when Bart hovered over his shoulder.

"Whatcha reading?" Bart read the last line of his entry that said something about how complex, highly intelligent, dangerous women seemed to be a fatal attraction for heroes in their line of work. "Lady trouble?" Bart smirked.

Bruce rolled his eyes and steeped his fingers, choosing not to rise to Bart's baiting. "You got something you need from me? I'd like to get at least an hour's sleep before I have to show up at a board meeting this morning."

"Right, this morning," Bart said scratching his head. He held out his other hand. "I found this in my old apartment. Looks like a camera. Can you tell if it's still transmitting?"

"You brought it here?" Bruce asked incredulously, his face turning stormy.

"No, I left it on my dressing table in full view of my costume closet. Duh, ease up, Grumpy, I put it in that nifty lead pouch you gave me."

Bruce took the offered item, flicked the lights off and put his desk lamp on. He reached behind him under another desk and put on a wielding helmet before he opened the pouch.

Bart smirked at his movements, folding his arms over his chest. "Yeesh, paranoid much?"

Bruce rolled his eyes, not that Bart could see it and held the small device out next to his police scanner, there was no static or feedback interference. "It's off. The batteries are probably dead, or it could have been damaged by weathering. Is that dirt?"

"Found it in the planter box outside the window. Listen, I'm starving. Call me if you find out anything, yeah?"

"When aren't you hungry?" Bruce mused. "You can raid the kitchen if you want, Alfred's probably got some..." He shook his head with a small smile, noticing that the room was absent one speedster. "Pot roast. Help yourself."

.

**Along a quiet street in the city**

Bart strolled along, watching the first rays of sun breaking over the city's sky scrapers and through the once darkened eerily quiet streets.

He pushed his hands deeper into his hoodie pockets, he's body temp ran higher than most due to his super-boosted metabolism and the cold tended to hit him harder. He found the colder it got, the more his hunger intensified. And with that thought his stomach growled again. He continued his walk, not really sure where he was headed. For once, he didn't have a destination, he just felt himself being pulled in this direction.

"Hey, stop. No!"

Bart's ears perked up and he spotted a lady trying helplessly to keep up with a mugger down the block that had obviously stolen something from her.

Bart kicked into Flash mode, speeding into this suit. He saw the mugger run around a corner into a darkened alley, and sped after him

He arrived and ran straight into the back of another body. All three of them went sprawling to the ground. Bart blamed it on the fact that it was still pretty black there, and the fact that he hadn't considered the fact that he'd need to come to an abrupt halt, only three feet past the dumpster that was at the mouth of the alleyway.

"Get off me," a distorted voice grunted.

Bart scrambled to his feet, realizing just who had broken his fall. His eyes widened. "I'm so sorry, here let me help you up." He jumped to his feet and grabbed her wrist, turning her slightly and lifting her by the shoulders to her feet before she could offer a hint of protest. Her mask was off. He hadn't realized, but one of the lightening points on his costume must have caught on her hooded mask, pulling it off.

His jaw dropped and his blood ran cold, his heart racing his chest. He blinked rapidly, not believing his eyes. "Chloe?"

"S'cuse me a sec, will you." Chloe went to the fallen mugger who must have hit his head spectacularly when they'd all collided, he was face first on the pavement, unconscious. She collected the stolen item, which happened to be a overly stuffed laptop bag, and replaced her cowl.

Bart watched her zip out of the alley, blinking at how fast she'd run. She was almost as fast as Clark. Wow, if he hadn't fallen just a little harder for her in that second. His heart thumped weakly again, remind him that he was depriving his brain of much needed oxygen. Oxygen he need for his brain to function properly if he was going to keep her from disappearing on him again. He took a deep breath, and ran as hard as he could to his destination and back in time to see the lady gratefully accepting her laptop back and embracing Chloe enthusiastically.

"My whole life is on this thing, my work, my children's pictures, all my details..." she sobbed emotionally, "Thank you, thank you so much."

"It's okay, you're welcome. Just next time, might I suggest you wait till you're locked inside your car before you take it off. And make back ups of everything. Always pays to have back ups. Especially of treasured memories. You never know when they might be lost..." she trailed off, the memory of sacrificing Watchtower resurfacing. She'd lost immeasurable data that night, and only a few short months later, what was left of her life, she'd deleted with a simple click of a button.

The woman nodded furiously. "Definitely. Thank you again." The woman didn't even seem to notice the faraway look in Chloe's eyes, as she got into her car and started it, with one last joyful wave at her rescuer.

Chloe shook herself out of her stupor and turned to run down another side street. She looked quickly behind her, relieved that Bart seemed to have disappeared. Shooting her line to the rooftop of a nearby building, she climbed the ledge and retracted the hook. She'd intended to leave Gotham City earlier, but no sooner had she left her apartment building when she'd heard a cry for help. The needs of citizens all over Gotham had continued to keep her busy all night. And before she knew it, dawn had come. She didn't know how Batman did it for so many years alone. Not only was it exhausting, but how disheartening was the fact that for every criminal she left bound and tagged for the local police to find, there were ten more just like him still lurking in the dark. She'd almost run into Nightwing on her patrol but thankfully, either Batman hadn't appraised his former partner of her WANTED status, or he was too busy with his own mission to worry with her, just another of several costumed vigilantes that stopped crime in Gotham.

"It was you," he said quietly. Now that he's seen her again, looked at her unmasked face, he knows without a doubt why those eyes hadn't faded from his memory in all these years. It's Chloe. Chloe was the one who saved him.

Chloe put her hand to her chest. It doesn't matter how many times she seen Clark or Bart just pop up out of nowhere, her heart still skipped a beat. Her scare reflex isn't as jumpy as the first few years Clark started popping up on her, but she hasn't let anyone get the drop on her in years, not ever. At least not until last night. Twice in less than twenty four hours, this new record wasn't going to bode well for her covert status. His eyes were narrowed, accusing. He seemed to think he had her pegged, she definitely wasn't going to offer to help fill in the blanks. She turned to leave.

Bart zipped in front of her cutting off her escape. "You did that on me once already. Don't you think I deserve some sort of explanation. All those years ago, it was you. Everyone thought you were dead. Of course Oliver and Clark were convinced you had a plan but when six months, then a year went by and no sign of you, even they started to doubt..."

Chloe's shoulders dropped. She'd always suspected with the losses they'd suffered that year, the pain her disappearance must have caused, and the knowledge that she'd traded her life for his, how it must have weighed on Ollie. But she never suspected, never really considered what it might do to her friends and hearing Bart talk about it, seeing the anguish in eyes, the hurt in his voice, it took away any argument she hoped to make in her defense. She had no words. What could she say, that it was for the best, that she'd seen their fate and they were infinitely more valuable to the world than she was. That their lives could be saved, but only if she gave up hers. Even if he believed her, what would comfort would that give him? It would only have him pity her, or worse, it would make him feel guilty. Guilty for not being able to protect her like they all promised they would. She wasn't ignorant. She knew why they where happier that she played Watchtower, safe behind her computers in that fortified tower. When she'd joined their merry band of heroes on a permanent basis, they'd all been concerned for her safety, asking her if she'd like training, showing her their areas of expertise, encouraging her to expand her knowledge base and be as involved as she wanted to be on missions, while all doing their best to keep her sheltered each step of the way.

She could tell he wasn't about to let her out of his sight. Chloe discreetly reached under her cloak for her gun.

Bart watched her movements, his eyes widening before he glared at her. "What? You're gonna shoot me? Even if you are fast enough to pull the trigger, you can't hope to hit me."

Shaking her head, sadly at him, Chloe backed away slowly.

Bart panicked and reached out for her. She was gonna do that vanishing act, he was sure of it. Granted, it's broad daylight and she can't use the cover of night to escape, but he's just terrified he won't find her again. Anything he could do right now could spook her, he's not going to make any sudden moves. "Just wait. Tell me why? Why can't you stay? Just talk to me. Chloe, please. We could always talk about anything. Or I'd talk and you'd always listen." He implored her with his eyes, wishing for the first time that he could just rip his suit mask off and show her his face. He'd never wanted to reveal himself to anyone more desperately than right now. He wondered if she saw his face, the face of an old friend that maybe, just maybe he'd be able to distract her long enough to trap her.

"It's not Chloe anymore. It's Suzy, and I'm sorry, but I can't." She jumped off the roof and glided into the brightening day.

Bart stared after her as she drifted and sailed between buildings with the grace of a falcon flight. He tracks her, his heart thumping loudly in his chest. He waits until he's sure he knows which direction she's headed before he takes off after her. It's difficult to track someone in the sky and run in super-speed at the same time. As the saying went, you should always watch where you're going, even if you can run as fast as lightening and everyone else just about freeze frame around you. That is unless you wanted to end up with a chipped tooth, or three from smacking your face while tripping over a crack in the pavement or a stray dog.

Definitely looks like she's the one that's been keeping an eye on them. Her cape reminds him a lot of Batman's, and her grapple gun looked a lot like Ollie's, and her skin tight shimmery outfit, all glittery and sparkling makes him think of Donna's suit. Briefly, he wonders if the Amazonians gave her powers.

Once she lands in a darkened, quiet alley way, she sheds her costume and balls it under her arm. She gives fifty dollars to a homeless woman for one of her coats and a pair of wellies from her cart. She's not sure she's lost him, but if she's quick enough, she can join the morning commuters, and in plain clothes she can blend with the crowd.

A five minute train ride, and several blocks later, she climbs in through the small space in a boarded up window of the abandoned house where she stashed the rest of her equipment when she'd run the night before.

"You can keep running, and we can do this dance all day, maybe indefinitely considering you've picked up a few more skills since we last saw each other, or you can stop?" Bart said speaking up from behind her.

Chloe jumped and turned, eyes wide. He must have beaten her inside because she definitely didn't hear him coming in. Determined not to let him wear her down, Chloe let out a huff and started pushing at the cabinet she used to hide the open wall space. She dragged out her bag, and her other suitcase. When Batman hadn't pounced, she'd taken a route back to the apartment block and collected the rest of her things quickly, hiding them here. Dropping the coat, she ignores the audible sharp intake of breath from behind her. She dresses quickly, and pulls on gloves, a scarf and her sunglasses. Pulling up the handle of her suitcase, and threading her arms through her back pack, she heads for the door.

Bart stepped into her path. "I'm not letting you out of my sight until you tell me why you can't talk to me. Why you've stayed away all these years."

"You don't get it, I'm still staying away. You're just not letting go. Chloe Sullivan doesn't exist anymore. She hasn't for a long time. She died over ten years ago."

Bart grabbed her shoulders to keep her from moving, staring her down. She's one stubborn female, he'll give her that. "Chloe's not dead. She's right here. Why? Just tell me why? I know you've kept an eye on us. All of us. I know you definitely wouldn't have stopped watching out for Oliver. You loved him, he loved you. The Chloe I know would never have left him vulnerable. But he was you know. Nearly got himself killed a bunch of times in the first year, his head was messed up, it didn't matter why, you left him Chloe. He wasn't the same after that."

Chloe hung her head, unable to look in his eyes without feeling the pain herself. She did what she had to and she would again. It had saved his life. She'd protected all of them over the years as best she could. She infiltrated Checkmate, she crippled their operations. She anonymously helped J'onn, providing him with cover and intel. so he could expose their operation to Congress. It was disbanded only to be commissioned by the UN. Although in hindsight, she wondered how futile trying to be covert with a telepath as powerful as J'onn would have seemed to him. He must have understood and respected her reasons though, because he'd never pursued her or contacted her directly.

Then there was Lex, the ever evolving Cadmus Project. Not to mention how much her uncle, one General Sam Lane, creating all sorts of problems making it no secret how much despised Superman and all metahumans, devoting all his energies into discrediting them or trying to have them all locked up, and Superman banished or wiped from existence. Her mission was never ending, her work never done. For every plot she uncovered, for every villain mastermind she took down, something else or someone else came up.

Having no one to be accountable to, working alone, she got the job done. There was no Clark to question her methods, and no one else to share the guilt she carried over the more questionable things she done, or to give her grief about it. She was a different woman, not a better one, but a definitely a stronger more efficient one. Love and attachments were a distraction people like them couldn't afford. Bats had the right idea. It was fine to have allies, but anything else would pull your focus away from the mission.

Bart ripped off the sunglasses and cupped her face. "Chloe look at me,"

"There is no Chloe. Let me go, Bart."

"No, I won't. Someone has to save you from yourself. You've spent your whole life looking out for others Chloe. Putting everyone else first. We're your friends, we're suppose to take care of you too. Nobody else is fast enough to pin you down. I'm not letting you go. I'm here, and you're not going to get rid of me." Bart gentled his hold on her and pulled her close, in a hug. He suddenly felt lightheaded. His blood warming in his veins. He realized what she'd done, he held onto her more tightly, one hand snaking into her hair, cupping her ear.

His grip began to slacken. "You drugged me?" he said, quietly accusing. He could see the pain in her eyes, and before he lost consciousness, he could have sworn he saw tears.

_._


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9  
**

**October 2020  
Adam Heights Necropolis, Star City**

A week ago, she'd left Bart in a cab headed for Wayne Manor. She'd paid the driver and told him that her friend had a little too much to drink and he had to sleep it off. She explained that he was visiting a friend and that his name was Bart Allen. She'd made sure to cover his costume in plain clothes that she'd bought from the Mini Mart. If anyone looked down however, they'd muse over the striking choice in footwear he had.

Her run in with Bart left her rattled and feeling more alone than she had in a long while. It reminded her of the hollow, gutted feeling she had when her mother died. Her mother's birthday had come and gone, and that's why she found herself here today. Seven years had gone by and she hadn't visited. She wondered what her mother would have thought about what she'd been up to. She wondered what she would have said if she'd known what she'd done in her name.

Choe had barely attended the funeral, she'd never even seen the grave stone that had been erected for her, and she'd never visited. She was a horrible example of a daughter. Her chest ached, and her eyes burned with tears she couldn't let fall. She desperately needed to talk to someone. She needed to know that she was making the right choices, that it still meant something. It had been years since she'd put on that helmet, and the visions were even more subjective and hazy now than they had been then. Her dreams of the future now long past were fading, she could barely remember what had seemed so abundantly clear and destined. Visions that had propelled her to make the most logical choice, an easy choice to save Ollie. To protect her friends. Even her nightmares, the ones that had woken her screaming in cold fright all those years ago of what she'd suffered at Rick's hands, warped and intensified by her vivid imagination, were gone. Her nights kept her awake for a different reasons now, she felt detached, her mind unable to rest, over stretched, full of strategic planning, binary and encryption codes, names, faces to track.

She knelt on the grass looking down over the hillside to the cityscape in the distance. This place was one of the few areas, just on the city fringes that hadn't been wiped out by the explosion, Prometheus' reality tear had created. She sensed him before she heard him. She knew someone had been visiting the grave, pulling weeds, bringing cornflowers and dandelions. Cornflowers were her mother's favorite. Her father had given them to her on their first date when they were in college, said they matched her eyes and they'd become a staple in their relationship after that. The house always had cornflowers, she remembered when she was a little girl, thinking they were so delicately pretty. They never appeared again after her mother left.

Chloe touched the cornflowers in the small glass vase by her mother's gravestone. Her father must have visited, in the last few days at least, the flowers weren't wilting yet. Probably on mother's birthday. She'd read that he'd remarried and her heart pulled at the thought of how long she hadn't seen or spoken to him. She hoped he was happy.

"I figured someday you'd be back."

His voice set her heart beating wildly. She had known this was reckless move but she'd come anyway. Maybe this as her final test, or maybe this was the answer that she'd been waiting to hear. Was all she'd done worth the price she'd paid. Was it something she still had to do? Was he doing what she hoped he would with the life that had been given back to him. Was he still the man she remembered? The man she often saw in her fondest dreams when sleep finally claimed her. "Ollie," she said her voice breaking, turning slowly to look at him.

He kept his distance, his hands fisted at his sides. He was in his Green Arrow uniform. She figured that must be all he owned now that he'd been exiled from his home. The government hadn't bothered to hunt him down, at least not yet. There had been talk about it, but she figured it was all paper pushing, the fact that his identity was public, and he'd been found not guilty would have been a decisive factor too. And for the most part, people understood, some probably even secretly praised him for it, he'd only done what everyone had wished they could have. He'd killed a monster.

She stood slowly, watching him wearily with wide eyes, barely blinking, taking him in- His full beard and moustache, how his hair had grown a lot longer and hug around his ears, slightly shaggy. He looked tired, a little dirty but no less handsome in her eyes.

"So why now?" Oliver asked, his voice hard.

Chloe shrugged slightly. "I guess, I just wasn't so afraid of facing up to everything anymore." She looking back at her mother's grave, tracing the letters in her mind's eye. _Moira Sullivan._ She missed her mother's comforting melodic voice. "After I heard what happened, and I knew that you guys were safe, was it selfish of me that my first thought was, thank God this place had been spared?" She wiped away a stray tear, her voice quivering. She had no idea how she would have handled her mother's monument and remains being swallowed up by the earth, replaced by a mysterious forest that had sprouted up overnight.

"No. First place I visited after it all happened was the memorial park just outside the city, where my parents are buried."

Chloe nodded. "How's Roy?"

Oliver's cheek muscle twitched. "Mad as hell."

"I know why you did it, Ollie. You did it so he wouldn't become a murderer." She watched his body tense out of the corner of her eye. "But like it or not, even ending a monster like Lex, or Prometheus. It's still murder. Not that I blame you. I can't judge you. I'd do exactly the same thing. I did."

He moved no closer and neither did she, the silence stretched between them and a soft breeze blew across the grounds.

"How were you so sure I was still alive?" she asked lightly, tucking back wind blown hair from her eyes to look at him properly.

Oliver shrugged, putting his crossbow back in his holster. He'd been wary watching her from the distance. Seeing her stop and kneel in front of Moira's grave. He hadn't recognized her from far off, approaching her, he'd hardly dared to believe she was real. "Besides the cyanide antidote you left me? Even before Master Hiroto described you, pretty, green eyes, smile like sunshine... I suspected that Bruce found Connor a little too easily. There were only three people I'd ever told about Ashram. Hal, the Berkeley Chairman of Admissions and you. You sent that article after Vordigan, and you planted that transcript request for Bruce to find."

Chloe snorted. "It would have been easy if you'd bothered to look yourself. I created a monster spoon feeding you guys with Watchtower. You used to do your own research before I came along. Did you forget your way around a computer?"

Oliver lifted a shoulder and looked away, across at what remained of the city. "You were a lot better at it than I ever was, and afterward... well, I just found others who could fill the void."

She didn't know why she said it, her inability to suppress her innate snarkiness maybe but she blurted, "In more ways than one, I noticed. Always knew those emails were more than you made them out to be. There were sparks between you, even then."

Oliver's face clouded and his lips twitched angrily. "I didn't want Dinah, I wanted you! But after spending time with Connor in Ashram, I realized that it was your choice to leave me and not come back." Chloe wanted to protest at that, but Oliver stopped her. "We were great together Chloe. We fit. Even after you did the trade, you could have come back. We could have hidden you for awhile, till we figured things out but you chose to do this- to go solo, to walk away. And I couldn't follow. Damn it you knew, once I found Connor that I couldn't chose what I wanted anymore!"

He stalked to her, took her hand and pulled her close. He pressed his forehead to hers, holding her arms, his grip unrelenting. The tension in his body rolling off him and nearly drowning her with its weight. "No one has ever understood me the way you do, Chloe. I don't want to be a killer. Every step of the way, every move I made against them, hunting them down, I could hear you in my head. I could see your face but I couldn't stop. I had to do it and I knew you'd understand. I didn't want to but I did it. And I'll make that stand, pay the price if it means I can protect my family. Why didn't you come back to me?" he begged her softly.

Chloe didn't pull her hand from his and she let him hold her in that crushing embrace. Her own tears falling, when she felt him choke back a sob and cry into her hair. His tears touching her skin, triggering something deep inside her that she'd kept firmly locked away. A grief she'd never addressed afraid it might consume her and she'd never get up again. She'd walked away from her life knowing that she might never hold him or see him again. It would have gutted her to process that fully, so she'd locked it away. Feeling him, the way he enveloped her completely, his strong arms holding her, molding her to his hard body like she was his life line, desperate for her like air and cradling her as though she was precious, she crumbled. Putting a hand to his bearded cheek, she stroked his face softly. "I'm here," she whispered, her voice hoarse and broken.

"Come with me?"

Wordlessly, she nodded once resting her cheek against his chest. His fingers threaded with hers and he led them across the cemetery grounds to the lush forest that now bordered it.

She stopped him when they reached the trees. "Oliver, before when I said that I'd do it... I need you to know I wasn't talking about Kane. I tried to kill Lex. After what he did to my mom, I arranged the explosion at the World Leaders' Summit. I was targeting Lex and when he went down, I was driving the bus that picked him up. I sedated the security detail that accompanied us and I injected him with the same chemical cocktail he gave my mother. He used synthetic Venom, Miraclo and hypnotherapy drugs to keep her pliant and lucid, only he infused with green Kryptonite designed to heighten her meteor ability for longer periods. Mom told me what happened the first time he dosed her. It was way too strong and the Venom overloaded her system, she hemorrhaged and it stopped her heart.

"What he did to her..." Chloe ignored the bitter hot tears that streamed down her cheeks and Oliver wiped them away with the pad of his thumb, his other hand still holding hers, squeezing it gently, encouraging her to continue her confession. "I wanted him to feel that pain, and I wanted him to know why and who was making him feel it. Karma's a bitch and I wanted him to pay. I'd watch his heart stop and I wasn't going to bring him back. I watched him bleed out his eyes, nose and ears. And you know what he said to me? _'I knew you'd come for me, Chloe.'_

"Even in my disguise, he knew it was me and I was glad. It wasn't till later that I found out he survived. I know this one's not another clone because turns out my little assassination attempt turned Lex into a junkie," she snorted and squeezed his hand back. "My little stunt might have been the catalyst behind him recruiting his own personal little superhero squad, and put extra pressure on all metahumans and heroes out there but at least there was one win in there though, right? The serum pushed the limits of his sanity a little too far and proved to Waller and the world what a delusional, ego-maniac he really is."

Oliver quipped a smile. "Batman would love to hear that he owed Lex discrediting himself to the masterminding of one pixie-like blonde." He frowned. "Or should I say redhead." He inclined his head studying her, twisting one lock of her hair around his finger.

"It's henna. I fudge it, cut it, curl, it straighten, rub the roots with wigs and do goodness knows what else to it all time, figured the least I could do is use a natural dye."

Oliver buried his fingers in her reddish tinged tresses and tugged lightly. "It's longer, I think I like it," he said, grinning down at her wolfishly.

Chloe gulped nervously, trying valiantly to dismiss the eruption of flutters that look triggered in her stomach.

"Do you still trust me, Professor?"

Chloe stared into his face, his rich coffee-colored brown eyes, darker, even more intense and captivating than she remembered. "Always, Ollie."

Oliver pulled her to his side, and hooked his arm around her slender waist. She never could resist him in his green leather.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10  
The Mythical White Lantern Forest, Star City**

Against her better judgment, Chloe let him hold her, one strong, well-muscled arm encircling her waist, while he shot his grapple line deep into the forest. With a short tug, and a flip of a switch. They were sailing up from the cemetery grounds and disappearing into the tree tops. He swung them and jumped them from tree to tree, like he was fresh from the set of a Tarzan movie and slid down a vine, bringing them to a large clearing, where a crystal clear, iridescent lake sparkled under in the afternoon sun.

It's beautiful, Ollie," she whispered.

He didn't reply, he just pushed back his hood, and pulled her up against him tightly, pressing his lips against hers. Her kissed her hungrily, forcing her lips open, stroking her tongue with his. She moaned deeply, her legs folding, good thing he was the one holding her up. Chloe threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back with all the years of longing built up inside that she thought she'd buried until he broke the dam within her with one simple brush of his lips.

Clothes were shed, almost torn in their haste. He kissed, bit and sucked on every inch of her till she was screaming, begging and crying his name in short gasps between the kisses he stole from her mouth. She was drowning in him, the way he dwarfed her with his body, his arms completely encompassing her. He pulled them into the water and she hooked her legs around his hips. He was so much bulkier than before, they said you lost muscle tone with age, but that rule obviously didn't seem to apply to Ollie. He was thicker, broader in very sense and when his hardness pushed again her sensitive folds, the breath was ripped from her body. He stretched her beyond belief, filling her, quelling an aching need that she'd denied for so long. Tears streaked down her cheeks and he licked the moisture away, while driving into her over and over, whispering her name like a mantra, as he held her close. They were as close and bonded as two people could be, while still remaining physically whole. They were a tangle of limbs and he drove into her harder, his hands clutching her hips till they were bruising but she didn't care, she'd never felt so alive. Each sharp intake of air made her feel lighter, the fresh crispness of it invigorating her like never before and her lungs seemed to expand and take more in with every breath.

Her climax took her by surprise, it was sudden and fierce, tearing through her making her toes curl, her muscles spasm, her ears tingle and her nipples throb with a delicious ache. All the while he didn't slow. He continued thrusting into her growling and huffing out large breaths, a look of intense concentration on his face, his eyes never leaving hers. He kept it up until she came again, this time she blacked out.

When she came to they were lying on grass beside the lake. They were laying side by side, facing each other and he was studying her, with a sexy, self assured grin on his lips that she'd come to know so well.

"You seem pretty happy with yourself, Mr. Queen."

"I've missed the way you look when you're asleep. I think I miss it almost as much as how responsive and vocal you are." He grinned wickedly, arching an eyebrow playfully when she rolled her eyes and slapped his chest lightly.

He leaned across and kissed her, his gentle kiss quickly turning hungry, passionate and insistent. He pushed her onto her back and parted her legs, settling himself between them.

Chloe giggled at how hard he was against her thigh already but all the humor died away when she saw the way his eyes were dark, almost predatory. "You're insatiable you know that. Ten years and you're as horny as ever."

"It only matures with age, love," he said tenderly, his deep coffee-colored eyes watching her closely as he made them one.

Chloe's eye widened and her lips fell open in a silent gasp, as he lifted her leg and pushed in to the hilt. Holding the top of her thigh hostage in his arm, he withdrew and plunged back in with deliberate slowness, watching her every expression as his ministrations built her pleasure again.

After forcing her to the height of pleasure a third, fourth and fifth time, Oliver finally gave into his need and released himself inside her while her muscles contracted around him. Every muscle in his back, arms and neck are strained from the exertion and his body was slick with sweat. He eased himself back, withdrawing slowly, and Chloe ached at the loss of him, his weight, his invasion and the way he surrounded and filled her. With him gone, his scent, his warmth and his eyes no longer overwhelming her senses, her brain flicked online again. Her over-analytical, rational brain that processed every risk, calculated her every move, dictated her every decision. Her eyes watered as she was reminded of one stark truth that had failed to even register the moment he kissed her. He was married. He was married to Dinah.

He lay on his back, throwing his arm over his eyes against the mid-afternoon soon. "It's been awhile. I think I'll need a breather for a second, Sidekick."

Chloe gently tugged her hand from his. The whole time, he'd kept one of their hands joined. It was as though subconsciously he knew he had to hang onto her or she'd disappear. He'd tried to anchor her to him. She stood on unsteady legs reaching for her underwear, pulling it on.

Her withdrawal from her spot next to him had an immediate effect. He sat up and stared at her, eyes narrowing.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she asked, her voice breathy and not at all how she needed it to sound. He'd worked her to the point of exhaustion. She could so easily curl up next to him and sleep away the next 24 hours. It was so tempting, his hair tousled, his superbly muscled, spectacular, naked body glistening in the sun. She bit down on the inside of her cheek hard till she tasted blood. She could not, would not give into this primitive urge. She had more mental discipline than that. She hadn't had sex since Oliver, and she'd been fine without it. Well, she'd survived on dreams and a motorized girl's best friend anyway. One taste, or multiple tastings and she was like a kid at a candy store, unable to step away from the free sample tray.

"I'm no home-wrecker. I'm not in the business of having sex with married men."

Oliver's face darkened. His hands curled into fists. The image of Chloe having sex with anyone but him made his blood boil. He wanted to yell, that she better not be thinking about having sex with anyone else right now. Didn't she get it, didn't she understand? The second he saw her, there was no going back to Dinah for him. She was alive, she was here and she was with him. He had her now, he was never letting go. "You're not a home-wrecker. There's nothing left to wreck. Stop getting dressed," Oliver growled when she made to scoop up her bra.

Chloe ignored him, pulling the loops over her arms, and hooking the catches over her back. She glared at him, feeling more confident that she had at least a small barrier of defense against him. She bent to grab her pants, and watched him jump up to grab her arms. She dropped her pants in surprise when he backed her up against her tree just as quickly, the bark digging into and stinging the sensitive, unblemished skin on her back.

He pressed against her, trapping her between his hard body and the unyielding redwood. He's heated length, throbbing against her stomach and she felt herself responding, growing wet again with reminder of how he felt moving inside her. Immediately, Chloe bit down on her lower lip to keep the moan of need from spilling from her lips. She forced her eyes closed so that she didn't have to see the look of angry desire in his eyes. She breathed in through her mouth and out through her nose to calm her racing pulse and quell the urge to just lose herself in him again. She could ignore him if he's merely waiting for her to respond to him. She could force herself to be still, even though her body doesn't want to. No one has touched her in ten years. Not the way he has. It's not like she has time for a social life, and she certainly wasn't looking for attachments. She closed her mind to carnal desire, only indulging in it when her mind was clear (a rare occurrence), in the privacy of her bedroom, where her memories would satisfy a sporadic need.

He was the only one, he was the last and her body remembers his touch. Is awakened by it, revels in it, and longs for more. She can't keep the tears from falling. "I can't do this. I'm not the same person. I'm not that girl anymore, Ollie. And you're not mine anymore. I can't save you, when I can't even save myself. I can protect you, but I'm not the one you need. She can help you, Ollie. She's your family, they're your family now, not me."

Oliver let out a growl and cursed. Letting her go, he took a reluctant step back and he ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "I wouldn't have been with her, if you'd come back. You stayed away. You let everyone think you were dead. Why didn't you come back to me? You didn't even give me a way to find you? You didn't take anything, why even leave that clue behind if you didn't want me to hope..."

Chloe opened her eyes the second he let her go. It as though his distance had ripped something from her inside her. She sagged, almost sliding down the trunk of that mighty tree. It was her support when she could barely hold herself up. She looked at him desperately, it killed her that she was hurting him this way again. "Ollie, I didn't want you to act in vengeance. If you'd believed that they'd killed me, you might have... that man you'd become, the man I fell in love with, he would have been lost. Ollie, you're the hero. You're always meant to be the hero. You were born to be the man that was a protector, a knight, someone to inspire us to be better."

"I'm an outcast, Chloe. A fugitive in my own city. I live in a forest. Dinah is divorcing me, my son doesn't even know who he is anymore, Roy hates me and... I'm a murderer, several times over now. I'm no hero."

"Those men you killed, you did what you had to. You did it to protect those you love and hundreds, if not thousands of others. Right now, you just need saving, someone to help guide you back to the light, and that's not me. I'm not her anymore, Ollie. You might think I look like her, the girl you loved but I'm not. Whenever the world or the team needed protection, I did what I could. What I had to. The only reason I'm not dead or in prison is because I'm a ghost. I don't exist."

"So what are you saying? You're just going to disappear again?" He looked at her with anguish and disbelief on his face.

"No one was ever supposed to find me. I'm beginning to think I'm cursed. What am I saying? I am cursed. I'm Black Orchid, a parasite. You let me go once, Ollie. You'll come back from this. I know it. You're the hero, you always will be. They'll remember that. Dinah will forgive you, she always has."

Oliver shook his head, hot bitter tears brimming in his eyes. "You don't get it. I never let you go, you forced my hand. I never moved on Chloe. Not really. I gave you my whole heart, and I never got it back. I always wondered why everything was so hard between Dinah and me, now I know why. She isn't you, and it wasn't meant to be us. It was supposed to be you and me, always. And for your misguided information, research extraordinaire my ass, those wild orchids aren't parasites- they're mainly epiphytes."

Chloe sighed and planted her hands on her hips. She didn't make a very imposing figure in simple cotton black underwear but it was a reflexive action when she was trying to make a point. "Don't put this on me, Ollie. I never wanted this between us, you pushed. I'd reconciled to the fact long ago that I was never supposed to be in love. Everyone I've love always ends up badly hurt or killed. And they all leave in the end. I never wanted to hurt you. Never you. And if you keep hanging on, Ollie..." She shook her head slowly, before meeting his saddened face, her eyes awash with fresh tears. "I started all this for you. I needed you alive. Live for them, forget about us, it was so long ago anyway. You love her, you had to have loved her to marry her- to have built a family together. Don't give up. You're not a quitter. That's not you. There's no future for us now, Ollie. You know that. It was a mistake to come here. It was reckless and selfish of me. I never should have come. I'm sorry. Please, I don't want to have to do this."

"Do what?" Oliver asked, running his hands through his wet hair dejectedly, kicking at the long grass with his bare feet. He heard all her arguments and they sounded so desperate and futile to him. None of that really mattered. Dinah would never understand him, not the way Chloe did, and Connor- Connor would remember her, or at least how important she was to him. They could make this work, if only she'd stay. But she didn't want to stay. He was hearing her words, but mostly he was looking into her eyes and watching her face. She wasn't going to stay. He turned his head, a fierce pain stabbing through him.

Chloe bent down and picked up her discarded coat, her hand closed around a small cartridge in one of the the deep pockets. "Are you going to let me leave?" she asked quietly, not daring to look him in the eye.

"Not at chance.." he said determinedly, closing the two feet between them, sweeping her to his chest again. He'd find a way to convince her.

Chloe touched her hand to his neck. "I thought so," she whispered brokenly, depressing the pressurized injector against his skin.

"What... what did you give me?" Oliver hissed angrily, grabbing the spot, pressing tightly as if to slow the drug from spreading.

"It'll wear off in an hour or two. Maybe less, you've always had a pretty fast metabolism. Granted not as fast as Bart but still..." She caught him as he collapsed, not an easy feat, he was nearly twice her size and lowered him to the ground.

Chloe dried him off with her angora scarf and dressed him. She kissed him lightly and lingered, studying him with her hand on his cheek. He looked so much older, deep wrinkles marring his once young, perfectly handsome face. There were new scars with the older ones she'd already memorized from years ago. He looked so tired, and laying there now even in unconsciousness, he looked like he was fighting, being determinedly stubborn. He was always so stubborn. Then again, it had been one of the qualities she'd love about him. He'd always challenged her, his quick wit, his keen mind, his unwillingness to give up in the face of adversity. At least most of the time. There had been a few low points. But then for a boy who'd grown up an orphan, family was the most precious thing and it was only suffering of the ones he loved the most that ever brought him down. She'd left him that bottle because she'd wanted him to know that she was alive. That she was out there. And that he should continue the fight for justice, even if it mean he had to do it without her. Oliver would overcome his hurdle in his life. He was a survivor. It was in his blood.

When he woke up he would be angry, but she'd seen the resigned look at his eyes as the drugs had started to take effect. He might want to strangle her, track her down and play on her weakness again, but he wouldn't. Like Bruce in Gotham. Ollie was anchored to Star City now, he had been all along, she'd been the only thing keeping him in Metropolis. This city needed him now more than ever. He wouldn't leave. There was also Connor he needed to look out for. He would never abandon his son.

When she was a good distance away but still within sight, she sent an anonymous message to Hal - saying that Green Arrow was down, with the co-ordinates. She didn't linger. Hal would respond immediately. He'd always drop everything for his best friend. She always thought it was a little strange that Oliver had never introduced her to his best friend. But it wasn't until she'd gone off the grid and she'd started building detailed dossiers on all of them so she could rebuild her Watchtower database and track their movements, that she'd even learned about him. Hal had kind of had his hands full in the early years as a hero. Struggling to hone his new powers, fighting off a possessed girlfriend, Sinestro and juggling his Green Lantern duties. The two friends had only met up again after Green Arrow had gone 'public' and Oliver moved back to Star City a year after her 'death'.

It wasn't until she left the city limits, that she finally allowed herself to feel everything she'd wanted to give into the moment she realized she couldn't stay. Too much time had passed, he had a life, granted a pretty screwed up one at the moment, but it was still his life and she wasn't part of it. If she came back now, not only would she put Oliver in more danger, drawing the attention of Lex, Waller and whoever else she'd ticked off over the years but Oliver choosing her after so long, it would crush Dinah and hurt his family. Dinah might have given him back his ring, told him things were over, but she knew her old friend. Dinah would always love Oliver. They were alike in a lot of ways. They pulled the defensive card before the other party had a chance to wound them first or walk away. Dinah had been through a lot with Oliver, their on again and off again relationship. Oliver coming back from the dead, not once but twice. Dinah would forgive him. It'd take time, and Oliver proving himself, but she would take him back.

Chloe drew her legs up and buried her face in her knees, letting the pain in her chest leak out until she was a wet, incoherent mess. The sun slipped down over the horizon and she fell into an exhausted sleep, sagging against the glass. No one on the train daring to bother the woman who sounded like her soul had just been ripped apart.

_._


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11  
Sonora, California**

Ashley left her hands buried in the soapy water and glanced over at Nicholas who was drying dishes by the counter. "I don't think she's moved since she got back," she whispered worriedly.

Nicholas craned his neck, to gaze out the window to see if he could still spot Suzy where he'd last seen her in the bay window seat when he'd mowed the lawn earlier that morning. "She seems okay to me. Quieter than usual, it's good that she's out of that tech cave of hers."

"No, Nic, it's not good. Something happened on this last trip. Something bad. She hasn't slept, eaten or moved. She's wearing the same clothes that she came home in and I haven't seen one take out delivery boy in the past two days or her coffee mug. She always has that Superman coffee mug in her hand. That same water bottle has been perched on the window sill and it's not even empty. I'm going over there."

Nicholas frowned at his pregnant wife. She was a lot more sensitive about everything lately. She'd get teary eyed over a soap commercial or and even the Days of Our Lives theme. If he let her go to Susan, and something bad had happened, she might cry the rest of the day out, and that couldn't be healthy for her or the baby. "Maybe she just needs a distraction. Something to get her out of whatever it is that's bothering her. She doesn't have friends come visit and she doesn't have any family so I get why you feel you've gotta do this, but she likes her space and we give it to her. I do think going over there with chicken soup is going to fix things."

Ashley's eyes brightened suddenly. "You remember what Uncle Dustin said about her? When we told him about what she said about that doctor that attacked that lady in the supermarket a few years ago. She said he was probably a wacky scientist that had experimented on himself or something... And then we showed her that cypher your buddies online were trying to solve for weeks and she did it, in like an hour. She loves mysteries and puzzles. Uncle Dustin thinks maybe when she said she does consulting that it was just a simple cover for what she really does, that maybe she works for the FBI or the NSA, like a criminologist or an analyst or something. He's working a new case and he sent me the notes. There are these ordinary people in Seattle, no priors, no motives, all of a sudden they're committing petty theft, arson and assaults. They're acting like junkies but their tox screens come back clear. They're trying to figure it out, but they're just getting more incidences and they can't figure out the connections or what's causing this and none of the perpetrators are making any sense."

Nicolas shooed her aside and handed her the towel to dry her hands, it was obvious she wasn't going to finish washing up. Her uncle was feeding a monster giving her all these cases to feed the budding mystery novelist in her. "And you think telling her all this is going to make her snap out of her flunk?"

Ashley's shoulders dropped. "I don't know. She's not very easy to read," she said with a small pout. "But I feel like we're her only friends. It's not fair that she should be alone. Whatever she's going through, I want her to know that she can talk about it. Only if she wants," she added quickly.

Nicolas drained the sink and dried his hands, switching on the espresso machine, and taking the bag of coffee beans from the kitchen cupboard. "If you're going over there, best you go bearing gifts."

Chloe saw the shadow at the door, before the door bell chimed. She didn't really feel like moving and she definitely wasn't ready for company, her hair a mess, her face splotchy, her eyes probably bloodshot and her body stinking of two days without showering, who knows what her breath smelled like but she could see from the silhouette who it was and who could turn away a well-meaning, six-month pregnant woman from their doorstep. Sucking in a deep breath, she ran a hand through her hair and tucked a few wayward strands behind her ears. Folding her cardigan over and crossing her arms over her chest, Chloe unlocked the chain, and twisted the door knob. Cracking the door open an inch, the most decadent aroma, her favorite scent hit her nose and her stomach gurgled loudly.

"I made you a hazelnut mocha, triple shot. Your favorite?" Ashley said hopefully, offering up the bucket of a mug.

Chloe almost laughed at the sight, it wasn't so much the apprehensive look on her face that did it, but the logo on the mug. "The coffee was Nic's idea, right?"

Ashley frowned. "Yes, how did you know?"

Chloe took the mug and turned it so that Ashley could read what was on the front.

_"Don't Be Fooled. I Just Act Like I Care."_

Ashley's eyes widened and she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Suzy, I'm sorry, he's such a dork sometimes. I..."

Chloe's eyes wrinkled at the corners and she let out a snort, and before she could even think about it the snort became a laugh, before Ashley joined in till they had tears in their eyes. "I'm sorry, it's just. I think your husband really does do my brand of humor after all."

Ashley waved her off. "I wouldn't give him too much credit. He's an introvert, I don't know half of the things that go on in that head of his but I really don't know if this was deliberate. We don't really have a lot of mugs. He's the coffee drinker, I've never been that fond of it. Smells okay, but tastes horrible."

Chloe quirked an eyebrow at the woman as though she'd suddenly morphed into another species. "Really? Maybe you just haven't had someone make you great coffee." She blew lightly on the surface of her drink and took a sip, her eyes fluttering closed as the liquid spilled over her tongue. Scratch that, the man could brew coffee like it was his gift. She just might pay him to deliver it every morning.

Ashley rolled her eyes, not noticing how blissful or quiet Chloe had suddenly become. "Believe me, Nic's tried to sway me. I've just never gotten a taste for it. But happy to know you two have at least one common trait. You're both share a strong appreciation for black liquid gold, or as I like to call it gut rot, tooth stainer."

Chloe who had been in the middle of a sip, spewed the hot coffee, spraying one of the white porch posts brown. "Sorry," she spluttered.

Ashley cracked another smile. "Sorry, bad timing. So I was wondering, I noticed you probably didn't get lunch, and you don't really cook much... do you want to come over for dinner? Or I can just bring you a plate," she added quickly, realizing that company was probably the last thing she wanted right now.

Chloe sipped her drink and inhaled the coffee aroma. The smell alone was doing wonders for her psyche. She blinked and peeked at Ashley over the rim of her mug. "I know I must smell horrid, and I'm certainly not dressed to go out. It was really sweet of you to check up on me, Ashley but I'll be fine."

"Do you mind me asking, how your trip went?" Ashley began softly. "Probably not so great?"

Chloe stiffened, and slowly lowered the mug. She bit the corner of her bottom lip while she thought about how she should answer, or if she should say anything at all. "I made a miscalculation. Turned out to be very bad for all parties involved."

Ashley squeezed her forearm. "I'm sorry to hear that. It's probably not the best time, but I was hoping that maybe you'd like to look at a case my uncle's working on. He's trying to put things together, trying to figure out what the common denominator. The thing is the only lead they have is just a theory with no supporting evidence."

Chloe twitched a smile. She knew that Ashley was into mysteries, and Chloe had indulged her when she showed her drafts of novels she still wasn't confident enough to send to a publisher, but she'd done her best not to appear interested in talk of active cases her uncle seemed intent on involving his niece in, so as not to raise suspicion or draw any further attention to herself.

"You know I'm just a tech geek, right?"

Ashley shook her head. "Oh no, I don't want you to think of it like work, I just thought... with that cypher you did for Nic's buddies... you can see patterns, codes, you can figure out those complex puzzles. And you looked like you were having fun doing it... I just thought since you're feeling a little down, that maybe you'd like a distraction."

Chloe sighed inwardly. All she'd had in her life were distractions. Never any time to sit down and just enjoy the quiet, no time to just switch off, self-analyse or mope. She knew now that she was really missing out. Moping actually felt good, kinda draining but it felt necessary. Like she should have done it a long time ago. But she shook herself mentally. She couldn't wallow forever. She'd chosen this path, and she couldn't go back. She couldn't ruin things for Oliver, yes things were bad right now but they could only get better. He might not want to believe it but his family needed him, and they wanted him there. Dinah, Connor, Mia and Roy were alive. They weren't dead, and so long as you were breathing, things could always pick up. You just had to want to make it right. And she would help him - from afar of course. She didn't trust herself to ever step into his orbit again.

"Give me a few minutes to clean up, and I'll crack out a bottle of wine. Probably would do my head good to focus on something else for awhile. What time's dinner?"

Ashley beamed and clapped her hands. "That's great," she exclaimed before ambling down the stairs. She paused on the bottom step having realized that she hadn't answered Chloe in her excitement. "Oh, six-ish. But you can come over anytime. Hope you like it hot. We're having enchiladas."

Chloe waited till Ashley disappeared through her own door, before closing hers and sagging against it. Her brain immediately thinking of Bart, at Ashley's cheery admission. Another wave of guilt washed over her and her chest tightened painfully at the thought. Shower and work. The sooner she got on another case, the less time she'd have to dwell on all the painful, hurtful things she'd done to the people she cared for the most. However well meaning her intentions and the promise that their lives were better off without her, less complicated and definitely less dangerous, it still meant that she hurt them with her seeming indifference to their feelings, regardless. Ollie might have argued that she wasn't a parasite, but she was definitely poison.

Chloe set her jaw and placed the coffee mug down on the side table, determined to get her head in order before she showed up at her neighbor's. She had enough quirks as it was without adding a suspected bipolar complex to the mix.

Three months later she was beginning to think that the universe really was plotting against her. She was back in Gotham tracking down a lead behind the mysterious release of a Venom-like drug introduced to the streets of several major cities. It had started in the seedier clubs, quickly spreading to the high-end, exclusive joints, passed around like party favors till people were hooked and practically clamoring over each other to get more.

The drug didn't show up in a regular tox screen because it bonded with muscle tissue. The only reason police had eventually detected it was when one person had overdosed and they'd done a biopsy, when a lot of the man's organs had seemed abnormally enlarged.

Coming cross the coroner's report, through her database searches, it didn't take her long to spot the familiar chemical chain. Which made her think of one man, Bane. The Venom strain was too pure to be Lex's composition, the concoction that he'd used on her mother. Although the green kryptonite gel coating on the capsule, she'd managed to score and have analysed after posing as an escort in Metropolis, had her suspicious that Lex may be involved. To get more answers she was going to have to go after the source.

Rumors said there was a back room deal to go down at the End World Hunger Fund Ball in Gotham City. Foreign diplomats, rich and famous were going to be there. It was the perfect marketing opportunity, also the perfect cover to do a little under the table switch. It was an invite-only, white tie event, and tickets had been bought up months ago. Even if she could score an favor with one of her regulars as an escort, it wouldn't give her the freedom she needed to do what she had to. Tonight wasn't just about merely planting bugs or using a micro-camera, she had to mingle and scout for possible buyers, but most of all she had to blend in.

She thought for a moment why Batman wasn't all over this already. How he'd let it got so far as spreading beyond U.S. Boarders? Maybe he was still trying to get on top of things. Being dead and travelling through time tended to set you back a bit. And she couldn't fault him entirely since as far as she knew, this hadn't started in Gotham. It had started in New York, then Gotham, Miami, Metropolis and then through to Los Angeles, Star City and Seattle.

Bane was smart, but obviously he'd gotten greedier in his old age and was willing to push his luck. He'd come up against Batman several times over the years but and only landed in hospital and then prison once so far at his hands. Obviously, Bane was either trying to bait him with this latest move, or he thought he was clever enough to outsmart the world's most formidable detective.

Placing the empty champagne goblets back on the bar for the dish hands to collect, Chloe turned to make her way back through the crowded ballroom, to do the rounds again. She's passing the corridor to the rest rooms when an arm pulls her aside from behind.

She shook him off ready to get in his face over manhandling, when she realizes it's Bruce. He's smirking at her like he knows something she doesn't. Which he probably does, considering he's here. But then again, why wouldn't he be, he's the rich playboy billionaire and this is his city.

"Mr. Wayne," she said politely, but coolly. "Was there something I could get you?" Chloe ran her finger between her collar and her neck. It hadn't felt that way before, but all of a sudden it felt insufferably tight.

"I know you're not an employee, if you'd done your due diligence, you'd know that one of my subsidiaries funded this shindig." He's still smiling, with a twinkle in his eyes. And Chloe has to resist the urge to throttle him, just for fun. So he's seen through her disguise and figured her out. He's good. She knows that, he doesn't have to be so smug about it. He looks her up and down. "Am I going to find Gretchen unconscious in a closet somewhere, Chloe?"

She tries not to flinch when he uses her name. She knew he suspected her of being Black Orchid. He'd traced her when Deadshot had targeted her a few months ago, but she never suspected that he might know her birth name.

"Gretchen's safe in her bed, will probably wake up with a slight hangover tomorrow. I'm here on a job," Chloe says through her teeth. "Are you working the same angle or are you just here to make my life difficult?"

Someone enters the corridor and Bruce pulls her closer, pushing her back to the wall, while leaning over her, in what would seem to onlookers like he was trying to seduce the help. Chloe rolled her eyes, looking at his shoulder, while their audience walked by.

"Aren't you going to ask me how I know who you are?" Bruce asked her softly, his breath caressing her neck. "Besides, I think the thick rimmed glasses only work for reporters."

"I'm a reporter," Chloe argued. She reported crimes to authorities and fed information to the appropriate parties. Same thing.

"Was a reporter. In another life," Bruce countered.

Chloe shivered involuntarily. His suit was very deceptive. Now one would suspect how many taught, well-honed muscles were hidden underneath that finely tailored jacket and suit pants. But she knew. One of his legs was resting lightly against hers, and his arm was on her shoulder, his wrist right by her cheek, she could feel the outline of his athletic physique and the steady thump of his pulse. She could smell his cologne, it wasn't overpowering, fresh and slightly spicy, but it made her a little light headed, or maybe that was just his proximity. His lips were dangerously close. Barely a breath away, now that she'd lifted her head to look at him. He had the clearest, most keen, deep blue eyes. She was mesmerized, and she wanted to slap herself when she saw them turn up at the corners. Damn him, he knew he had an effect on her. "Must be the playboy billionaire code," she said lightly, her eyes narrowing. "I know Ollie went to you for help to find Connor. I never should have gone back, he probably roped you in to try and track me down, huh?"

Bruce chuckled and smiled at her, tugging lightly on the long brown ponytail resting on her collarbone. "Haven't seen or heard from Oliver since he decided to play Robin Hood full-time. Besides, seems you've collected more than one admirer. I don't think Oliver's the one you need to worry about. He's not the one who outed you. Flash tagged you. I've been tracking you for weeks. I don't like outsiders working my city."

Chloe scowled. Bart tagged her? How had that slipped her attention and why hadn't he made his move before now? Or was he just tracking her to make sure she stayed safe? "Where is it?" she demanded with a hiss.

Bruce let her go of her fudged hair, and took a step back. "Can't tell you that, you'll have to ask the man himself," he added with a wink. "I have this thing handled. Enjoy the nightlife, and hang up the cape. I don't need your help."

Chloe crossed her arms under her chest and eyed him thoughtfully. "Ordinarily, yes. But right now, you kinda seem a bit rusty. I've been looking into this for the past three months, his operation is extensive and he's looking to expand even further, you sure you can handle this solo?

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "Who said anything about doing this solo?" He turned his head to the crowd, and Chloe watched his eyes. A brief nod passing between Commissioner Gordan's daughter, Barbara, before she continued talking to a striking Asian woman, in a dragon print dress. Reminded her a little of Roulette. So he'd brought his old partners along. This was starting to feel like a set up. Bring in prospective buyers, set up a lucrative meet, close the snare, grab the fox.

If it didn't go down tonight she was pretty sure he wouldn't let it go on for much longer. Batman had no limits. One way or another Bane and whoever was working with him, were going down. "I'll give you one week." Chloe pushed her empty silver tray against his chest and walked away.

Bruce chuckled at her back. "I can see why he fell in love with you. You got guts, smarts, a great ass and a sense of humor."

Chloe turned around and gave him the highway salute before disappearing through the kitchen doors. She knew it was juvenile, but Bruce Wayne in playboy mode irritated her. He was unnervingly confident, handsome, and his smile reminded her too much of Ollie and it hurt.

Dick walked up to Bruce suspicious of the entirely too self-satisfied smirk on his lips. He watched the woman stalking away with a purposeful stride, looking like she'd rather be anywhere else at the moment. "Who is she?"

Bruce poached a champagne flute and downed it. "She's nobody."

Dick looked over to see her disappear through the kitchen doors. From prior experience, nobody was always somebody to Bruce Wayne and now he was intrigued.

"Do you know if Flash upped his life insurance?"

Dick looked back at Bruce in alarm before he noticed the total lack of concern on his mentor's face. And dare he speculate on it, a tinge of humor. "You mean since he came back from the dead? Kinda negates the need for one don't cha think?"

"Oh he's gonna need it, trust me."

_._


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**  
**  
Three months ago**

Hal touched down on outskirts of the forest, so as not to take a nose dive through the trees again. The white lantern power was nullifying his Green Lantern ring. After taking out the helicopters he waited for Oliver to see his signal and meet up.

Oliver dropped to the ground and stood slowly.

"Nice launch," Hal said with a quirk of his eyebrow. "Thanks for the warning."

When it had looked like they were going to be quickly over run by the new head of Queen Industries' henchmen, and they'd heard more incoming from helicopters overhead. Oliver had done some quick thinking and launched Hal up and out of the forest using a pulley trap system he'd set up. Realizing that if he was free from the effects of the forest, Hal would more than level the playing field.

Oliver shrugged. "Would have defeated the purpose if you didn't hang on tight enough."

Hal touched his shoulder. "How are you doing? When I got the S.O.S, I was halfway around the globe, helping John with a small crisis, I wasn't sure I'd get here in time. But you're fine, handled yourself like a pro for a guy who says he's too old for the Justice League."

Oliver snorted. "Not too old, just... I figured it was time I give the younger guns their turn, you know. There's so many heroes out there now, and you have to know how bad it is here, right? I mean you're not just doing a fly by.. wait...what S.O.S?"

Hal looked at his ring, and frowned. "You didn't send me the signal? Said you were down, needed back up, ASAP."

Oliver ground his teeth. Chloe. She knew it was dangerous for him to be out without someone to watch his back. He wondered if she knew the new CEO's agenda and that's the whole reason she'd really come to Star City in the first place, look into her further. He wouldn't put it past her, intel was her field. She had eyes and ears in everything. "It wasn't me."

Hal studied his friend. "Who sent the signal, Ollie?"

"Chloe. Chloe Sullivan."

Hal's eyes widened. "The girl who traded for you way back when... she's alive? Well where is she?" Hal knew how hung up on her Oliver had been for years. He found it hard to believe that he'd let her disappear again.

"She's gone. I don't think she ever meant to come back. At least not to me. She mentioned Bart, which makes me think she's run into him before. Probably pulled the same stunt on him." His eyes darkened and he curled his fists. She better not have done exactly the same thing to him. Or he'd have to bend the speedster like a pretzel or use him for target practice. And that would be a shame, since they only just got him back recently.

"So... she drugged you and took off?"

Oliver touched the spot on his neck absently. "Pretty much."

Hal folded his arms. "Now that you know that she's out there, it's easy to track her down you know. We've got Zee, J'onn, or even Clark, whenever he next checks in anyway. Any one of them could pin down her location."

Oliver rubbed his beard. "I don't think it's a good idea."

Hal snorted. "Why, because she doesn't want to be found?"

"No," Oliver barked. "Because I'm done with all that."

Hal arched an eyebrow. "You're done."

"Yes, done. Done with relationships. I was dumb enough to think I could live like everyone else, be with all of them out there. Have a normal life and still protect everyone. We're not all as fast or great at multitasking or dual identities like Clark. You can't do it. You know that Hal. How many hours do you have left in a day to just put on a suit and go out to dinner? You eat on the run. When was the last time you even went on a date?"

Hal snorted. "So we're talking about me now? Or are you just avoiding what happened with Dinah? You two had it perfect for awhile there..."

"For five minutes? I get nabbed at our costume circus of a ceremony before we can get to vows and I'm held by Amazons for months while everyone else but Dinah thinks I'm dead. She rescues me and then Connor gets shot. He's catatonic, we get married for real and then he gets taken, we get him back and he's different, not bad different but he can't even shoot an arrow to hit the target, let alone a bulls-eye and he's the new an improved Plastic Man- or sort of. Then I get my very own stalker and I meet my doppelganger again, who tries to steal my life for a second time. She gets promoted to Chairman of the Justice League, while I sit around on my ass, past my prime and feeling useless. Then there's all this with Prometheus.. tell me, when in all that time was it ever perfect?

Hal scratched the back of his head. "When you run it down like that..."

"It's what? Abundantly clear that we never should have gotten together in the first place? That I should have tried harder to look for Chloe, that I should have waited for her!"

Hal stopped him with a hand gesture and a pointed look. "No. It's clear that you've got issues. Unresolved issues. You need to sort it out, Ollie, man. Now that you know what made you clam up, what made you think you couldn't talk to Dinah about what you were going through before, what was really going on in your head, now you can deal with it. This Chloe girl..."

"She's not a girl."

"Right, woman, whatever. She's made her choice. You need to deal with that. Either fix things with Dinah, or don't. Just don't throw us all out the window while you're here brooding. You have a family, Ollie that's really hurting right now. Remember that."

Oliver took a deep breath. "I hear what you're saying Hal. I do. And I'm not being the dick here. This is where I'm needed the most, and I don't know if you've noticed, but Connor's taking to the streets without a bow and arrow. He might think he's invulnerable but everyone's got a weak spot. I'm keeping an eye on him. I know my responsibilities."

Hal smiled slowly and let out a breath. "You're a good dad, Ollie. Listen, you're welcome at Watchtower, anytime." His ring bleeped. "I gotta..."

"Just get," Oliver said with a dismissive wave and a smirk.

"Right." Hal started to lift off and waved. "Don't make us wait too long for you to show your face around."

"Got it," Oliver said over his shoulder, disappearing into the trees.

.

**Keystone City, present day**

Bart kicked shut his door and blurred to the couch, stripping to his boxers and putting his feet up on the coffee table, knocking back a beer in the space of a few seconds, before scrambling to his feet and spitting his mouthful everywhere when he noticed the shadowy silhouette in the corner.

Chloe stepped out into the dim lamp light, scowling at him. "You tagged me?"

Bart put his beer down on the table with a slam. "You drugged me!" he countered. Chloe grinned and Bart frowned, before smiling back, his lips widening until he was really grinning at her.

She couldn't even get upset, even though he'd put her at risk. She just couldn't help it, he'd stood up to her and made a very valid argument, she was so surprised and impressed that she just couldn't help grinning at him. "You've grown up a lot. Filled out, and wow, you're even almost a head taller than me. Funny, I didn't really notice that before." Being a caped vigilante she'd hung up her heels a long time ago. Her costume consisted of wedge combat boots, and she rarely wore heels, they messed with her posture and muscle tone. The only pairs she owned where purely accessories for various guises, she was wearing ballet flats tonight, and he had to dip his head to meet her eyes now that she was closer.

Bart puffed out his chest and grinned some more, before his expression clouded and his shoulders hunched. "After I saw you in Gotham, I went back."

Chloe blinked and folded her arms under her chest at the sudden change in his mood. "What do you mean, you went back?"

"To the day you traded yourself. I followed you. I saw everything. Let's just say Andrea and I exchanged a few strong words. And when I got back, we said a few more. She'd may or may not be stuck in the Himalayas right now."

"Bart," Chloe said chastising him with a shake of her head, letting out a long sigh. "She only did what I made her swear to do. You have to go bring her back."

"I know, doesn't mean I get to like it. And I while I get it, I still don't have to like it. I'm angry with the both of you. I just don't want to give you a chance to disappear again, so that's why you're still here and not off on some remote island somewhere, where you can think about how much you made us worry over you."

Chloe closed the distance between them and after brushing his hair back fondly, she plopped down on his couch. She look over his length and smirked up at him. "You do realize you're in your underwear, right?"

Bart looked down and grinned widely. "I know, huh? I get to tell Bats I was with you, and you were admiring me in my underwear. He was the one that spilled?" At her nod of affirmation, he shrugged a shoulder with a small smile. "Yeesh, never can handle other heroes playing on this turf."

Chloe eyed his beer, and just at that moment both their stomachs growled loudly. They looked at each other and laughed.

"I'll grab us something to eat."

"Bart, you might want to..." Chloe waited a few seconds and looked at the clock on the wall. Sure enough, about a minute later. He reappeared sporting a distinct blush.

He gestured to the bedroom behind her, hanging his head. "Maybe I should get dressed first."

Chloe smirked, her eyes twinkling. "Yeah, probably a good idea," she said with a nod.

Fully clothed, he came back a short while later with her favorite, a Cajun chicken salad with lots of grilled red bell peppers and triple shot latte from the Metro Coffee Shop. Her eyes prickled at the sight. Sure it would have literally taken him five minutes tops waiting at this time, and a two minute or less run, but the gesture was so sweet. Truthfully, one of the things she'd missed early on was no longer living over a coffee shop. Sonora's nearest coffee shop was a five minute drive, and considering she worked from home, it meant it was far more convenient to make her own. At least she'd invested in a decent espresso machine and learned how to use it. Still there was nothing like drinking a great coffee that you didn't have to make yourself.

"How are your feet?"

Bart looked down at his red running boots and smiled. "Haven't had a blister in years. Super-shock absorbent, gel lining and ultra durable rubber, plastic polymer soles. Mr. Terrific helped Wally design them. Like walking on air."

"Maybe I'll have to get me a pair, sometimes my feet feel like I've got blisters on blisters."

Bart chuckled, eying her footwear. "Combat boots'll do that to you, built tough, but pretty brutal on your feet too."

He dropped into the sofa beside her and dug into his burger. Chloe couldn't help but watch him. He seemed so different, grown up and all male. It was a little unsettling.

"What?" he asked around his mouthful, mustard and tomato sauce collecting in the corner of lips.

"You got a bit of..." They both moved to wipe it away, and the second their hands touched. Chloe jumped, she'd been zapped. "Whoa."

Bart stiffened, immediately concerned. "Sorry about that, it's usually not so unpredictable. Really, it usually only happens if I'm going super fast and I tap into it... Are you okay? The suit protects me from charge build up."

"It's fine," Chloe said touching his arm experimentally. She didn't get a shock and she relaxed her touch, still resting on his forearm. She felt his muscles flex and she took her hand away blushing slightly. "So how come you didn't come get me straight away? After you tagged me, I mean," she said tucking her hair behind her ear.

Bart smirked and sipped his coke, before setting it on the arm of the couch. "Well I thought I'd track you a bit first. See if you settled down any place. What's in Sonora?"

He didn't mention that he also noticed her visit to Star City. He knew her mother was buried there, but he also know their mutual old friend, the Green Archer called the city home. She hadn't been there long, but he'd bet a year's pay that they'd run into each other. Nothing went unnoticed by Oliver in his city. Much like all the heroes could claim about their own hometowns. She hadn't brought it up and he sure as hell wasn't going to mention her old flame, or maybe even a current one. He frowned and tried not to dwell on the thought as he waited for her answer.

"It's home base, I guess," Chloe said with a shrug. "Although, I did make a couple friends."

"Oh yeah," he said with a disbelieving grin. With how much she'd jumped around in the three months since they'd last seen each other, he found it hard to believe she had any time for a social life, let alone time to pick up friends she could trust or form anything meaningful with. He could bet it was safe to assume that intermediate years had been much of the same. "Do they have names?"

Chloe glared at him, and folded her arms under her chest. "Yes, Ashley and Nicholas."

Bart choked while trying to choke back a laugh, his next gulp of coke almost making it up his nose. "Sounds like they live in a daytime drama."

"Laugh it up, all you want. They're real and they happen to be two honest, caring people. You won't ever meet better neighbors." She could tell Bart didn't really buy a word she said, and was simply indulging her with his quiet nod. She could still seem him smirking behind his coke bottle. "So... ah, tell me what you've been up to these past couple of years."

"You mean since I came back?"

"Came back? Like when you said you time traveled before?"

"No, I died."

He said it so casually that Chloe's hand shook and she had to set her coffee down before she spilled it all over herself. "You died? How did I not now about that?"

Bart shrugged. "Last year, you were probably busy trying to keep ahead of what Lex was up to and all that. There are a lot of super-villians out there. The Teen Titans and I, well, we ran up against a pretty big one. I did what anyone one of who have if it was the only way to save lives. Did what I had to, saved the team and the city. They even built a monument to me, till I came back. Guess they figured, you can't have a monument to a guy who's alive right."

Chloe reached for his hand and squeezed it tightly. "I'm so glad you're back. And I'm sorry I wasn't there." There was another jolt, but this one wasn't like the last. It was more a tingle that raced up her arm from the palm of her hand, and made her heartbeat faster.

Bart nodded. "S'okay. You had stuff going on. I know you would have tried to help if you could, or if you'd known."

"So you ran with the Titans for awhile huh?" Chloe tried not to think about why her thoughts immediately when to one very striking, dark-haired Amazonian beauty that could fight better than most men.

"Well after Ollie tried to go public, and Clark was still deciding what do to about his hero image, I sorta followed Vic. He'd been working with these guys, mentoring them and it just felt like they were more on the ball. You know? Like they had direction. I think we lost ours for awhile there."

Chloe swallowed, a lump forming in her thorough. He hadn't said it but she knew he must have felt that some of that was partially her fault. Her leaving would have left them at a lost in the sense of Watchtower. Even though it was a proficient, comprehensive system, without someone to man it and investigate all their various points of interest, it would have been an expensive money drain standing idle.

Bart read her expression and closed his fingers around hers where they rested over his hand, squeezing lightly. "Like I said Chloe, I know what you did and why. I understand, so stop beating yourself up about it and eat." He let her hand go and deposited the dish and fork in her lap.

Chloe nodded mutely and dug into her salad. Believe it or not, she was starving and once she started, she finished it in less than five minutes. Bart had finished his burger and had started on his burrito when she sat back, glancing at the box of fried chicken on the table.

"If you're still hungry, help yourself."

"I kinda skipped lunch in transit from Gotham, here. If you're sure you'll still have enough..."

"I can always grab more. Go head."

With a grin, she took a piece and sat back. They spent the rest of the night swapping triumphs over evil and Bart laughed very time she mimicked a guy trying to psych her out.

"You've gotta be having me on...at least a little," he argued to the shake of her head. "I don't know how some of these guys never figured out that you were a woman. There's not a disguise that could fool me into thinking you were anyone but you."

"Oh really," Chloe said with a grin, arching an eyebrow. "Care to make a wager on that?"

"You'll lose," Bart said confidently. "Doesn't matter what you wear, how you pad yourself, put a mustache on, dye your hair, wear a wig or glasses, I'll still know it's you."

"Yet, you tried to flirt with me on that rooftop with Deadshot," she countered playfully.

Bart grinned. "Please, I've always tried to get you to look my way."

Chloe's mouth ran dry and she distracted herself by taking a sip of her drink. And all this time she'd forgotten how much attention Bart used to shower on her. The first time they'd met he'd given her a tulip and told her that 100 years in the future they were still in love. As a girl, she'd thought it was just a line. Now she wondered if there was any truth to it. How long had he been able to travel through time? She knew a little of his story, his grandmother Iris had told her that she brought Bart to the present from the future, because of rapid aging disorder, but he'd been figuratively a preschooler then. Having spent most of his childhood in a simulated world to try and slow his metabolic rate. Had he been to the future at all since then?

When they'd first met, she'd still been starry eyed for Clark. She thought he was very sweet, but entirely too clique. She'd brushed it off as a passing adolescent crush, as if she hadn't had her own. When they'd met up two years later, he was still cheeky, charming but he'd done a lot of maturing and it finally looked like he'd found his place in life, a constructive, responsible way to utilize his talents, and friends to hang with, people to look up to. If she hadn't been with Jimmy, she might have encouraged a little of his flirting, not that she hadn't been flattered already. Looking at him now, he's not at all the boy she once knew. He's a man, all lean muscle. There's a hint of stubble dusting his cheeks and his rusty red hair, is darker, with only hints of golden now it's almost more brown than red. His kind brown eyes continually meeting hers, searching her face. Almost as though he's hoping to read her heart through her eyes. She smiles at him softly and settles back into the couch while he clicks on the TV. It's been almost a decade since she's enjoyed a companionable silence with someone. It feels really nice. It's not long before she falls asleep.

Quietly, Bart clicks off the TV, and scoops her up. Carrying her to the bedroom, he sets her down and unlaces her boots. He pulls the covers back and tucks her in. She looks so tiny in his huge king-size bed. He brushes the hair from her eyes, and kisses her forehead.

"Goodnight, Chloe. Sweet dreams."


	14. Chapter 13

**Warning:** This chapter contains a visual love scene

_._

**Chapter 13**

He brings her coffee in the morning, and she's still asleep. He finds it hard to believe this bad-ass heroine, that can take down guys like Deadshot on her own not once but twice, and yet here she is sleeping like the dead and it's nearly ten o'clock. He switched out his shift at the shop today, so he could be here with her. He doesn't want her waking up to an empty apartment. Truth be told, he doesn't want to give her a reason, or the opportunity to disappear on him.

Bart sets the cup down on the night stand and she stirs slightly, rolling onto her side from her back. She's facing the coffee cup now, her nose twitching as the familiar, favored aroma washes over her senses.

He smiles, watching her and sits on the side of the bed by her knees, and brushes the blackish, long hair from her face. What he wouldn't give to see it back in it's natural state. Gleaming like fine silk strains of spun gold, looking curly and softer than duck down. She turns into his featherlight caress, and his throat tightens. He leans closer, he wants to kiss her. Her lips are full, pink and her cheeks are slightly flushed from sleep. She couldn't be more beautiful.

Chloe's eyes blink open and she sees how close he is. She reads the intent in his eyes and instead of urging her to run, her stomach tightens and her lips tingle in anticipation. She figured from last night that it was the skin to skin contact that had created the charge. She wonders what his lips are going to do to her.

Bart watches her. Her green eyes, so expressive, wide and glistening, he can't stop looking into them. He could stare into her eyes all day. She doesn't look like she'll bolt or slap him if it leans in that extra inch and touches his lips to hers, so he does. She's still at first, but slowly she responds. The kiss deepens and her lips part, he explores her hesitantly at first running his tongue only very lightly over the outer edge of her lips and she shocks him when her own warm, moist tongue touches his, takes it hostage and soon he's in her mouth and he can't stop himself or hold back at all.

The kiss turns urgent and he stretches over her, trapping her body beneath the covers. At first she stiffens, her body instinctively reacting to feeling so restricted but they continue to kiss and her body starts to respond, arching against his and she runs her hands over his back and under his white t-shirt. Bart groans into her mouth. He whips off his shirt. He grabs the top of the bed covers and rips it away. Kicking it down with his feet, and pushing it off the end of the bed for good measure. He wants to uncover and explore every inch of her.

She must have shed her jacket and jeans during the night because all she's wearing is a small black t-shirt and a pair of high-cut black panties. He pushes the edge of her t-shirt up and his hands encounter soft, full naked breasts. He just about cums in his pants right then. She's bra-less. His eyes scan the room searching for a bra that she might have shed to sleep in comfort. He can't find one. The thought that she was bra-less while sitting next to him all night, just talking, sends his brain on the path to total meltdown. She's so incredibly hot and so seemingly unaware of her own sexuality.

He thumbs the outline of her left breast working his way up and over to the crest, the swollen, tight peak, that seems to throb when his thumb finally stroked it.

Chloe shivered bodily and her eyes fluttered closed, a half cry, half moan escaping her lips. He sits up, kneeling between her legs, and uses his other thumb to repeat the attentions that he'd given to her left breast, to the right. She emits another needy cry and grabs at him in frustration. Her hands find purchase and she starts undoing his pants.

Bart stops her with a laugh. "If you get me naked first, this is going be over way too quick, and I've been waiting too long for you to push me, Chloe, so now lie back like a good girl, and just feel. Bossy, controlling woman," he teased gently.

Chloe rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to make a snarky remark, when he pushed up her t-shirt and took one of her hardened nipples in his mouth.

"Bart!" she let out a throaty shuddering cry. She held onto his hair as his sucked, and nipped at one nipple, and flicked the other with the pad of his thumb until she ached, her core clenching with a throbbing desperate need. Tears stung her eyes.

Reaching for him again, she manages to get his pants off and she takes him in her hand, pumping him roughly. He's hard, hot and pulsing with want just as badly as she is. His leaking and she slicks it all over his length. He lifts his head and grabs her wrist.

"Chloe, please, just stop, sweetheart. Don't..." He looks around madly, reaching over to toss through a drawer. He can't find what he's looking for. He's sure there has to be some somewhere. Right now he'll blur to the drug store in his boxers to get what he needs if he doesn't find it soon.

Chloe falls back and growls. "Just super-speed already."

He grins and in a flash he's naked, sporting a very impressive, blue, studded erection.

Chloe laughs. "Rough rider? Really?"

"Don't knock it, till you've had it," he says softly. His fingers rubbing lightly along her wet slit.

Chloe arches a little and pushes down, two fingers slide right in, deep and he rubs along her walls searching for the spot that will make her cry, wreathe and beg for him. He can feel her breathing pick up, her heart rate rocketing in her chest, her walls tightening around his digits, she'd getting closer. He parts his fingers stretching her, before pulling out so that he can press against her. She tenses at first, and he strokes her clit gently, making her juices flow and slowly she relaxes and draws him in as he inches inside.

They make love. He's slow, tender and she's amazed at how controlled he is. She can feel her orgasm coming, but she can't let go. Something inside won't let her. Tears burn in her eyes, and she forces them shut, she clutches the sheets beneath her, and twists them. She breathes through her nose and bits down on her lip hard.

Bart feels the change in her body, she's stiff and he can see the way her face is tense in concentration, not in passion. He kisses her throat, her cheek and works his fingers between hers, forcing her to relax her grip on the sheets and hold onto him. He can see her fighting to detach herself from what he's making her feel. He wants to bring her back. He keeps thrusting into her, deeply, rhythmically and leans down to whisper in her ear.

"I'm here, Chloe. I'm with you. I'll never leave you. Let me hold you. Come for me, Licious. Open your eyes. I see you, I always have. Chloe, let go. I've got you."

A tear leaked out of her eyelid and she opens her eyes, he was watching her with so much gentleness, so much love that she sobs, a small cry bubbling up from her throat as the dam breaks and her orgasm washed over like a tidal wave. He managed one more push prolonging her pleasure, that powerful rush that had her whole body tingling with tight, hyper-awareness. He rolled to the side and cuddled her close, kissing her forehead and stroking her hair. She knows they're a sticky mess. He was as slick as she was, but somehow being pressed up against him, still joined, it doesn't repulse her in the slightest. She feels the strong, steady beat of his heart against her skin and the way he holds her is so tender, like he's afraid to hold on too tight. These she shatter like an illusion.

The sheets are tangled and rumpled thoroughly, soaked with sweat. She glances over his shoulder at the alarm clock on his bedside table. They've been going at it for almost an hour. She marvels at his stamina and his restraint. "You didn't have to do that," she says quietly.

Bart knows she's talking about his holding out until she came first. He pulls back a little so he can look down at her and into her eyes. "Yes it did, and I'd do it again. Chloe, you deserve everything. You deserve to be cherished, you deserve love. I love you, you do know that right? I've loved you from the first time I met you. Your gorgeous smile, the way your eyes pinch when you're suffering someone's stupidity, the way you talk animatedly with your hands when you're excited about something. The way you look euphoric when someone hands you a perfect coffee. Seriously, that look is orgasmic. You don't know how many hard-ons I... " He's already twitching with renewed vigor already. He winces noticing the sudden alarmed look in her eyes. "That was too much information, wasn't it?"

Chloe chewed her bottom lip and wrinkled her nose at him.

Bart kissed her nose absently and nodded, hugging her closer. Tucking her head to his chest, and resting his chin in her hair. "Yes, well moving on. I knew you didn't see me that way. It was really sweet of you to be so gracious about it for so long though. And when you fell for Ollie, and he was head over feet for you, well I just kinda resigned to the fact that you never would."

Chloe leaned back and craned a little to look at him. "You can't seriously still have the same feelings for me. We haven't seen each other in ten years."

Bart loosened his arms, and propped up on one elbow to look down at her dubiously. "No one will ever compare to you Chloelishious. No girl ever came close." He shrugged. "Sure I've had girlfriends, but only one ever knew the real me and even she couldn't really handle all my quirks," he said with a rueful smile. "No one's ever understood me, accepted me the way you did, and you weren't even my girlfriend. I'm starting to think, for awhile there, we all made you our substitute girlfriend. Until Ollie claimed you and told us to all find girls of our own."

Chloe grinned and blushed. "He did? I don't remember that. I didn't even tell him I loved him until the day he..." she couldn't bring herself to finish the thought out loud, the memory of saying goodbye to him again was still too fresh. "When was that?"

"Around Valentine's day, when Lois and Clark got cupid dusted. I was in Star City doing patrol duty with Roy, when Oliver called to warn me not to show him up. He said he'd already sent you flowers and I wasn't to bother you because you were really busy with the Kandorians and Clark. He didn't say you guys were together but I got the hint. We've know for awhile that he was into you anyway. It was kinda hard not to notice the way he looked at you differently after we played The Game on him."

Chloe nodded and chewed down on her bottom lip again, looking away from his face. Bart put a finger to her chin and so that her eyes were forced to meet to his.

"I know you love him. Maybe you always will, but I also know you can give me a little piece of your heart. You have the capacity to love like no one else I've ever known Chloe. You're always stretching the band to encompass more needy heroes or love-struck dorks. It probably won't be right now, or even a year from now but some time down the track... if you give us a chance, if you'll let me. I know I can show you your heart again."

Chloe pursed her lips to keep them from trembling as she tried to smile at him through her tears. She squeezed the hand that held hers, hoping she could convey just how much she felt that she couldn't put into words yet. He was special to her, more than he could even imagine. He made her laugh, he made her smile, he made her feel special, loved. He always had - she realized that now. She'd just always thought it was just his nature, his playful flirtatious way. She'd never taken it seriously, when all a long he'd been trying to show her in the only way he had the courage to. With his casual, easy going, fun-loving attention. Even when Clark tried not so subtly to set them up, it never really occurred to her that Bart might actually want a chance with her. Like everyone in the League she'd treated him like her little kid brother, never letting him out of that box she'd put him in.

Bart held a palm to her chest, over her heart. "It's still there Chloe. Whether you want to believe it or not."

_._


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Two weeks later, Chloe is still in Keystone. She's waiting for him to come home from his shift at the auto shop. He's got Watchtower duty tonight for the first time since she turned up in his apartment, and she knows this is the worst time for her to drop this bombshell on him, but she just can't fake it. She can't fake that she's okay. She's so far from okay that she can't even see straight. For two weeks it had been like she'd never left. They talk, they joke, they have fun together in and out of the bedroom and it's as though ten years didn't even happen. Yes, they're both older, things are different and they weren't like that before, but at the same time, she's never felt more whole. Until this.

Bart knows that something's wrong as soon as he enters the apartment. It's too quiet. Usually the TV's on, there's the sound of electricity humming or clacking of keyboard keys greet him, or the kitchen fan is on filling the room with wonderful smells. Chloe's cooking for him. She never cooked or baked much before but she knows how hungry he gets all the time and that his job doesn't pay much, so she started cooking for him. There's a light on in their bedroom. _Their bedroom_, his smiles a bit at the thought. He loves having her here. He loves that she's still there when he comes home.

"Chloe?"

"In here," she calls back.

He can hear it in her voice, something's upset her. His heart rate picks up. Is she thinking about leaving? Does she think that someone's tracked her down, or is she just having second thoughts about them. All of the above make his whole body tense and his hands shake. He fists them so that he doesn't look like he's already about to fall to pieces about whatever it she's going to say to him.

He finds her in the bathroom, perched on the counter. She looks pale, and he immediately worries that, that maybe she's sick. Maybe that's why she didn't come back to them, maybe she was really sick and she didn't want to get attached only to have to say goodbye. He goes to her and threads his hands in her hair, cupping her ears, thumbing away the wet streaks on her cheeks. He looks down at her and watches as she pulls his face down running her fingers through his hair at the back of his neck. She does that a lot, sometimes when she's lost in thought, sometimes when she just wants him to stay but not talk. He's never been a product guy, it soft and it's curly, getting on the longer side and he probably needs to get it cut soon but he loves that she likes to touch it. "Are you okay?"

She shakes her head, a tear slipping down her cheek, she chews on her bottom lip.

He kisses her forehead and hugs her close. He strokes her back, rubbing slow circles and kisses her hair, before resting his cheek against the top of her head. "You can tell me anything Chloe." He has to call her Suzy when they go out, not that they go out much. Between Chloe not really enjoying eating out or shopping, they occasionally visit the park and just lie on a blanket under the trees but with his work schedule, playing hero he really doesn't have a lot of personal time. He's worried he missed something, a sign that she was ready to open up about everything she'd really felt when she'd spent all those years alone. Or maybe it's something else. Either way, he feels guilty that maybe he hadn't been paying enough attention, that maybe she'd been feeling neglected or isolated, cooped up in his apartment. Not that he hadn't tried coaxing her out, even suggesting that she do what she normally did before. She'd pulled a strange face when he'd said that.

Instead of answering him, Chloe shows him the plastic stick she'd dropped in the sink. Bart picks it up and stares at it for a moment, his brain not really registering what it was, until he read, the pregnant, and not pregnant words followed by their matching symbols. He reads the result window and suddenly feels extremely light-headed. "You're..."

"Pregnant," Chloe said numbly.

Bart drops the stick back in the sink and uses that free hand to brace himself on the counter-top. "Wow that's... how did that happen?"

Chloe resists the urge to roll her eyes, his expression is comical and it would have been funny if he wasn't being serious. "How it usually happens, and yes, I know you've been careful so that's why I can't tell you this I..." she bit down on her bottom lip again to keep it from trembling, tilting her head back to keep the tears building up again from spilling out.

Bart sucks in a breath, and straightens, he gently cups her face and brings it level to his. "I know." He kisses her once, very quickly before hugging her tight. He doesn't let go for a long beat and when he does, he steps back with a resigned look on his face. "I know what you need. Don't move, I'll be right back."

He's gone in a gust of wind and Chloe doesn't know how to interpret what just happened.

_._

Bart appears in her office, just as she's about to grab her jacket. "I need you to promise me you won't freak out."

"Wow, Red, you need to learn to knock before you just pop up like that. What did I say about wearing a bell or something."

"Seriously, I'm only here because I think she needs you. Can I trust you to just be the supportive, understanding person I know you are?"

"If someone's dying, you've gotta work on your delivery skills, Sunny Jimmy."

Bart rolled his eyes and unfolded his arms. "I'll try to make note of that for future reference. It's not every day I betray my girlfriend's confidence because she's in serious need of female support and would never ask for it."

_._

Chloe's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open when she saw Bart reappear, he had the good sense to look sheepish, while Lois climbed out of his arms.

"Chloe!" she shrieked. Lois ran to her and grabbed her up tightly before turning her so she could glare at Bart. "She's been with you this whole time and..."

"Before you chew my head off, she's only been here two weeks," Bart argued.

Lois glared at him and jabbed a finger in his direction. "But you've known, or at least had an inkling of where she was all this time and you didn't tell anyone."

"Bruce knows!" he blurted, before he slapped a hand to his forehead. He didn't know how they did it, but between Diana, Lois and Dinah, he'd fold like a cheap suit every time. He had a feeling he'd never fair much better under Chloe's glaring eye either. As it was, he could tell she was going to strangle him once Lois let her go. Which lucky for him, didn't look to be anytime soon.

Lois turned her attention back to Chloe, pulling her back an inch to inspect her properly. "Your hair!" she cried. "Your beautiful, gorgeous, blonde hair, what the hell did you do to it?"

Chloe let out a bubble of a laugh, she never would have ever guessed that Lois Lane had been envious of her blonde locks. She never would have believed that her cousin was jealous of her in any way. "It's just henna Lo, a couple more washes and it'll be all me again."

Lois narrowed her eyes at her and let Chloe go slowly. "No, you haven't been you for a long time. Ten years and counting. The Chloe Sullivan I grew up with, spent summers with, ate fudge brownie ice cream and trashed BDA and ignorant cadets to feel better about how they hurt us or ignored us for prettier, pinker or girlier females, no... that Chloe would have told me she was still alive, she would have emailed, wrote or even sent me a postcard to let me know she was still breathing!"

Chloe hung her head before appealing to her cousin's softer side with watery eyes. "Lo, please..."

"Oh no," Lois said waving a finger at her. "Don't bat those gooey green eyes and Lo, me. Chloe, I buried your mom for you. Do you have any I idea how hard that was, all the while having this feeling that you could have been there with me and..." Lois narrowed her eyes and folded her arms over her chest. "You know Clark mentioned he thought he saw you. He did, didn't he?"

Chloe hung her head and saw out of the corner of her eye that Bart was trying to sneak past them to the door. He could have done it and been home free if he'd done it in super speed, but maybe he knew she'd feel the breeze and rip him over it later anyway. "You, you don't get to escape, Mister."

"But I brought Lois here for girl bonding. You know because of..." he nodded at her stomach. Lois followed his gaze her eye widening, while Chloe sent a look skyward, closing her eyes, praying for mercy.

"You're pregnant! To Speedy over here! How does that happen in two weeks!" she cried.

Chloe winced, Lois' volume increased with every word and she could see the vein throbbing in her cousin's neck. The shit was really going to hit the fan when she told them both exactly who the father was. Before she knew it, the room started spinning and the next thing she knew, she was waking up to the very worried faces of Bart and Lois, who started yelling at each other agan the second her eyes opened. For all she knew, they'd only stopped for a second because it had looked like she was stirring.

"I said be understanding, and supportive. Not yell like a banshee."

"And you've been hiding her from me for two whole weeks! You don't get a vote on what I say or do."

"Please guys, easy on the volume, please," Chloe begged softly.

Bart immediately, scooped her up and deposited her gently on the bed. "When was the last time you ate? I heard blood sugar can drop pretty quick in pregnancy, you gotta keep your carb intake up."

Chloe squeezed her eyes shut tighter. At his words her stomach lurched and she suddenly felt hot and cold all over. Her jaw went numb and she knew immediately want was gong to follow next. She scrambled off the bed and made it to the sink before throwing up. Damn Bart and being such an overly considerate room mate. He always put the seat down, which meant if she didn't want to redecorate the wall, she had a second to turn her head, to aim for the sink before the contents of her stomach came up.

Lois gathered her long hair and turned the tap on to wipe cool water on her neck and cheeks. "I'm sorry cuz, I swear no more questions, no more yelling, at least until you can rinse out and get some food into you," Lois joked lightly.

Chloe tried to smile but she really felt to weak and listless to even stand up on her own. Lois continued to hold her hair, while Chloe washed out the sink, her mouth, gurgled with mouthwash and poured half the bottle all over the sink bowl before she patted face dry and allowed Lois to lead her back to the bedroom.

Bart was there waiting for them with a grilled cheese sandwich. She waved him off, until he forced her to take a bite. After it hit her stomach, she realized it actually made her feel a little better, not worse. He offered her a glass of water with an antacid tablet to drink. She sipped it gratefully.

"And just so you know, Lois and before you try to kill me for something I'm not responsible for, but I will be if Chloe will let me, I'm not the baby's father."

Lois looked from Bart to Chloe and back again. Chloe just groaned. "Thanks Bart," she said bitterly.

"I'm being honest, sorry Licious, but I'm not letting her kill me over something I'm not guilty of."

Lois stood up and looked up at him, in her three-inch heels she was nearly eye level with him but she didn't need to be, to be imposing or have him sweating in his boots. "But you have been sleeping with my baby cuz, and you have been helping her hide out here, letting the rest of us think she'd dead or captured, off being tortured somewhere." Bart flinched as she got closer, her hand closing around his bicep, her nails digging into his skin. "I suggest you run, right now, and run fast because if you're anywhere within arms length of me for the next 24 hours, I'll castrate you myself. And any chance of you fathering any kids in the future will be a wishful dream."

"Yes, ma'am," Bart said with a nod before shooting a pleading look at Chloe.

Chloe shook her head a him. "You brought her here."

"And that's the only reason I haven't kicked his ass yet," Lois said turning to look back at her cousin, she tapped her foot. She asked Bart, "Still here?"

Bart disappeared. Chloe sighed and put her head in her hands. "He was only trying to help Lo. I think he's totally freaked out."

"Handling it better than any unmarried man I've ever met," Lois said sagely.

"How can I do this Lo?" Chloe asked tearily. "I can't ask him to support us, not that he needs to in that way I mean, I have money... I just... and I can't do this to Ollie, I can't possibly tear him up any further, he's already got so much to worry about but I'm not giving up this baby."

"Wait a second, what has Ollie got to do with this?" Lois' eyes widened. "Ollie's the...wait when did you? When did he? How far along are you?" she said eying her stomach again. There was barely a bump there.

"We slept together about three months ago. I was visiting mom."

Lois balled her hands into fists. "He took advantage of you when you were feeling weak, I know he's had a rough time of it lately but he's married and you were grieving... that's just a new low even for..."

Chloe squeezed Lois' hands and forced her to stop. "It wasn't like that Lois, it was my fault. I knew what could happen and I went along with it. You can't blame him. Besides, takes two to tango. I just find it really ironic how many kids have popped up from one time for him. Seriously how can I be sure there aren't more out there now I know from personal experience how potent his swimmers are?"

Lois quirked an eyebrow. "Connor's not his only biological kid?"

Chloe chewed on her lip again and wrung her hands. "No, he has a son called Robert. With Shado. It was one night, she seduced him, well raped him actually," she added quickly, sensitive to the need that she should defend him. "He was still on heavy meds from getting shot and it was during an off again patch with Dinah."

Lois rolled her eyes. "When is it not some drama with those two? I don't know why they thought getting married would change anything. How old is this other kid?"

"He's about seven, I think. Shado never told Oliver about him until the Dr. Sivana promised to cure him from some life-threatening illness, and Dinah and Ollie were searching for Connor. She didn't want Oliver to have any part in his life, much like Sandra didn't in the beginning. And I know how much he regrets that he wasn't in Connor's life before. I feel like I'm going to be doing that to him all over again, but I can't tell him Lois. I just... it's too much right now."

Lois put a comforting arm around her shoulder. "I'm guessing if you're saying he didn't force you, and he was completely drug and alcohol free at the time... What? Just making sure I got the facts straight," she argued at Chloe's exasperated expression. "So then you were both consenting and completely aware of the risks a the time."

Chloe put her face in her hands again. "I wouldn't say completely aware. Lois, I wasn't thinking at all. If I had been, I would have turned him down and run like the hell hounds were after me. He kissed me and I was gone. Just like that," she finished with a pitiful snort.

Lois patted her shoulder. "Honey, we all know were babies come from, even though they come along a helluva lot easier for some than others. You had to have thought about the possibility by now, especially since you obviously slipped the protection bit being all hot'n'heavy." Chloe blushed about six different shades of red, some even darker than her hair but Lois barrelled on completely oblivious. "Which makes me wonder if Dinah's not the problem. They've been together what... eight years or so, and nothing?" Chloe gave her a sour look and Lois' shrugged. "I'm just saying, he's obviously extremely fertile, it's just her garden can't growing anything." Chloe slapped her arm. "Owww. What was that for?"

"I do not, what to hear or picture Oliver's sex life, please! I remember hearing enough to scar me for life from you back in the day. Please, no more Lo."

_._

When Bart snuck back in bearing two bags of Chinese and three pepperoni cheese pizzas and a six pack of Lois' favorite beer, he hoped that the ladies had done the bulk of the heavy bonding already. He was majorly relieved to find them in front of the gas fireplace, laughing and sitting opposite each other, legs tucked up, sipping hot drinks.

"Are boys allowed?"

Chloe arched an eyebrow. "Boys no, charming, good-looking red haired men with dinner, yes!"

He grinned at her cheekily. "I guess I can stay then." He leaned over the back of the couch and kissed her forehead. "Feeling better?"

"A little, Lois made me more toast before."

"Thanks Lois," Bart said with a wave at their kitchen. "You know, for not burning it down."

Lois picked up a cushion and threw it in his direction. Bart caught it effortlessly and tossed it onto the vacant armchair.

"So who wants what?"

"I feel like spicy hot sauce egg noddles and sour cabbage."

Lois gave her a queer look and smiled. "Well she's already got the cravings down. Pizza and beer for me, Hotshot. Thanks," she said when the requested items appeared on the coffee table next to them. "I see why you like having him around, he is faster than Clark."

Chloe giggled and Bart pulled a face. "Please, Stretch has nothing on me. He can't time travel." Chloe and Lois both gave him a look. Bart rolled his eyes. "Without help," he qualified.

"Reporters, Sparky. Specifics matter."

"Reporter, singular, Lois," Chloe clarified.

Lois chewed and swallowed her mouthful before responding. "Like you haven't been playing super sleuth, investigative reporter all this time. Just because you don't get to write it up Chloe, doesn't mean you haven't been exposing the truth and serving justice. The heart of it is, you've always been the same person, you still are. You've just gotten a little lost for awhile there."

"Lois," Chloe starts softly.

"Clark's always so busy these days, sometimes I don't see him for weeks at a time. He's so busy with New Krypton and ever since Clark came out as Superman, leaving the Blur behind, my father and I haven't really spoken besides the usual yelling. I haven't seen Lucy in just about as long, we both know where she stands in all this. You're all the family I have Chloe. You and Clark. I'm not losing you again. We'll do whatever it takes. I visit, you visit. I'm sure Speedy here can handle it. Right Bart?"

"Absolutely," he said nodding heartily, he was all for anything that meant Chloe would stay. He would support her in everything, anything she wanted, as long as he could stay a part of her life.

Later when he ran Lois home again, he tucked Chloe in, unsure if he would be sleeping next to her or on the couch again since the first night she came to him.

"Stay," she said holding onto his hand.

He sat down on the edge of the bed watching her in the bluish moonlight. "Are you sure?"

"If you want to," she added quietly.

"You know I want to, but... Chloe, I know I said I know but about the baby but, are you going to tell him?"

Chloe closed her eyes, before she sat up and took both of his hands in hers. "I know both you and Lois' probably think I should, but think about everything that's going on for him right now. Do you really think telling him would be good for him? And Bart, while I love him, I love you too and I'm with you. Ollie and I, we had our time. He's with Dinah now and he has a family to look out for already."

Bart frowned. "But don't you think he'd... I don't know Chloe. I know if this was my kid, and you still chose to be with him, I'd still want to know." His jaw tensed and he looked at her sadly. "Unless you know you can't tell him because you're not strong enough to walk away a third time."

Chloe looked away then and couldn't stop the tear from escaping. Bart must have seen it, even before it welled enough to leak out. He kissed her lightly once before he disappeared. He was gone so quickly- his warmth, his weight from his side of the bed and his comforting clean scent, that she could have been fooled into thinking it was a phantom thought and he hadn't kissed her at all.

Her heart hammering in her chest, her chest tight, she fell into a fitful sleep. The worst sleep she'd had in weeks.

There was no hot breakfast waiting for her when she got up. Bart was the early riser and he always made her eggs on toast, or heated her milk. She couldn't stomach cereal unless she had warm milk to go with it. Thinking back, she should have clued into the fact a lot sooner that there was something up with her body. She'd stopped wearing under-wire because her breasts felt fuller and more sensitive, she didn't feel like eating of a morning, and certainly couldn't stomach anything cold. She felt tired by mid afternoon and no amount of coffee could keep her awake. And there was definitely a heightened sense of smell. She remembered how Bruce's light spraying of cologne had made her feel light-headed.

Chloe padded to the kitchen. The apartment was drafty and dark. There as no note and when he didn't come home that evening, it was the first time she tried calling him.

When he didn't come home for the next five weeks, she started to worry herself sick, she'd called him at least a hundred times, until she realized he must have either left his phone behind, tossed it or turned it off. She'd tried to track him through his GPS with no luck. It reminded her of the time after Doomsday he'd disappeared, out of all the League-ers he'd been the hardest to find. At wits end, she'd called Lois. Her cousin had breezed through the door, Clark in tow two minutes later.

Clark gave a cautious nod in her direction, and was taken by surprise when she just bounded over and jumped him, hugging him and crying at the same time. She blamed pregnancy hormones. She'd had the scheduled check-up, blood work and was on prenatal vitamins, and her body had finally kicked in overtime with all the usual stuff, it started off with negligible symptoms and was now seemingly making up for lost time, by dumping her with everything from excessive nausea, the strangest food cravings, bloating and spontaneous, embarrassing emotional outbursts. She was a complete basket case and the worst thing was she was completely alone. "Where is he?" she sniffled between hiccups.

Clark's bottom lip pulled to the side as he glanced at Lois who was giving him a threatening look. That he better spill what he knew and now. "He's at Watchtower. He's been filling in for just about everyone who wants a break. Funny thing is, he didn't cave when Dinah got suspicious and asked him why all the sudden extra duty he's pulling, and he won't talk about it to anyone. Lois filled me in, and then I went to talk to him. Chloe he's pretty torn up. He thinks you're not ready, and he pushed you and..."

"Lois, you did tell him that the baby's not Bart's right?"

Lois chewed on her lip and Chloe's eyes widened in surprise. Clark looked confused. "What?"

"I didn't tell him, because I knew how Mr. Responsible-Goody-Two-Shoes would react, a whole lot of bombs would blow up in all our faces and now it looks like it's gonna happen anyway. The baby's Oliver's."

"But Oliver's married to..." Clark's eyes narrowed. "When did he see you?"

Chloe sucked in a deep breath. "About four and a half months ago."

Clark turned around and headed for the door. Chloe grabbed his arm. "Clark, don't."

Clark looked down at her. Just one look at her pleading eyes and he caved. "Bart knows doesn't he? That's why he's so torn up. Chloe, he thinks you're still in love with Oliver."

Chloe shook her head. "I am, but I'm not. Not the way he thinks. Clark, I know where Oliver is. Don't you think if he's the one I wanted to be with, I would find a way to be with him? Bart's the one I've been tearing my hair out trying to track down. He's the one I miss...He's the one I want here with me."

"Did you tell him that?" Clark asked tiredly.

Chloe chewed down on her bottom lip . "I thought he knew... I stayed. I'm still here."

Clark looked around the apartment. "Where's all your stuff? Did you tell him you wanted to be with him? Did you ever prove to him that you were here to stay?"

Chloe hugged her stomach. "No," she said quietly. "But I will prove it too him. If he comes home, I'll prove it to him."

"How?" Lois asked.

"I'll sell my house, I'll move all my stuff back here. I'll find a job..."

"Easy there, tiger. One step at a time's fine." Lois smiled. "He really did win you over didn't he?"

Chloe's eyes welled up. "I didn't know how badly I could miss him till he was gone," she blurted before falling into a nearby chair, her eyes smarting, cheeks feeling warm rivers again.

"Clark?" Lois said sternly. Clark nodded and disappeared.

When Bart reappeared with Clark, Chloe looked at him sulkily. "You said you'd never leave," she said accusingly.

Bart hesitated before walking over to her and touching a spot behind her right ear with a small black, coolish device. "If I wanted to truly let you go, free to choose whoever and where ever you wanted to go, I should have done that before I left." He wanted to hug her the second he saw her, her face streaked with tears, her once dark hair lopped off, her new pixie-like blonde bob make her look even more petite and adorable than ever, but he held back.

Chloe touched the spot he'd just zapped lightly. "The bug?"

"I'm here, Chloe. I'm showing you, that I trust you. Clark thinks that you want me here, that you want to stay, how are you going to prove it to me?"

"We're going on a little trip to Sonora. Think you're up for a bit of flying, regular style?" she said with a pointed look at Clark.

_._


	16. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Chloe watched Bart and Clark put the last of the boxes in the moving van, it was going to be a long transit all the way back to Keystone. Ashley and Nicholas helped them pack. She'd handed the keys to the agent. The papers would be sent over by courier whenever they found a buyer, she'd packed up her life in a day. It was funny, to think about how long it had taken her to set herself up here, yet how little time she'd actually spent in the townhouse. She'd never made it her home. It was a base of operations. Not a home. Home was back in Keystone with Bart.

Bart put an arm around her waist, resiting his hands on her ever expanding baby bump. "Ready to go?" he asked, kissing her temple.

Chloe beamed up at him. "I'm ready, when you are, Handsome."

Ashley kissed her cheeky and squeezed her shoulder with tears in her eyes. "I never thought I'd see it, and I still can't quite believe it, but I know it's true," she said smiling widely at Bart, shifting the squirming baby in her arms. Her two-month-old was a very chubby boy, and had a mop of dark curly hair, just like his dad. "You're the one. I've never seen her smile like that, you make her glow. And I guess she makes you feel the same way."

Nicholas pulled his wife away, and hugged her to his side, rolling his eyes. "You guys better head off before she starts crying. I thought we'd left that all behind once she had the baby, turns out the water works only get worse."

Bart chuckled. "Thanks for the heads up. Ready to hit the road, Gorgeous?"

Chloe tilted her head and eyed her man. "So long as you keep me fed for our road trip, sure." Bart shook his head at her, a slow grin spreading. She was such a joker. As if she needed a snack for a fifteen second run. He was a little worried about the jostling in her current condition, but she assured him she'd fair a lot worse if they were to fly back, or try being cramped in a car for 30 hours traveling on the I-40. That would be torture for the both of them. Bart heard witnessed first hand how sick she was, spending most of the flight with her head in a bag or in the rest rooms on the flight over, he also knew better than to argue with a pregnant woman, no matter how well meaning his intentions were.

Significantly less than twenty two weeks later, and nearly three weeks short of her due date, Chloe spent sixteen hours in labor waiting, begging, for the arrival of her baby. Barely drug-free, with an immeasurable amount of encouragement from Lois and Bart, Chloe welcome her baby girl, Laura Moira Allen.

Bart understood the need for Chloe to give their daughter Oliver's mother's name and simply nodded his approval when she searched his eyes in question when the nurse had asked for the baby's name. His kissed her soundly and touched his head to hers. He was just about floating on cloud nine over the last name. They weren't married yet, certainly not due to his lack of asking but they were a family, and this little bundle was theirs. They were Allens, now if only he could get Laura's mother to stop delaying and just make an honest man of him already.

Over the next two days, his Teen Titan teammates new and old came to inspect the new member of their family. These heroes in justice, they were as much his family as Chloe and Laura. And they gushed and beamed and cooed over Chloe's daughter as much as Lois and Clark had.

They nearly needed to rent a mini-van to bring home all the flowers and gifts that had crowded Chloe's small private hospital room.

He shouldn't have been surprised at the visitors that turned up at the door of their new house in the suburbs about a week later. For as great as his friends were, they were gossips the bunch of them. It seemed like in the Titan Tower, and the Hall of Justice they had nothing better to do in their down time than discuss the personal lives of their team mates.

"Dinah, Ollie," he said nodding what he hoped didn't look like a forced greeting.

"Hey Bart. Sorry we didn't call first, but..." Dinah began.

"Didn't want to give her a chance to run," Oliver cut in tightly.

Bart had to clench his fists at his sides. "She wouldn't have. She told Roy and Connor to let you know that you're welcome to visit, and she was going to come just as soon as she felt up to traveling again."

Oliver's jaw tightened, and a muscle in his cheek twitched. "Yeah, got that. Don't believe it."

"Ollie," Dinah said in warning, she sent Bart a sympathetic look. "Is this a bad time? Is she nursing or is Laura sleeping?"

"No, Chloe has her out back for a bit of sun. I'll go tell her we've got company."

"I'll go with you." Oliver walked stiffly to his side and headed with Bart through the sitting room to the kitchen.

Chloe's eyes widened at the sight of Oliver following Bart across her back porch, and she stood. Her hand shaking a little as she adjusted Laura's blanket. Her little girl seemed to sense her mother's mood and shivered too. She started fussing, and Bart immediately zipped to her side before their daughter could even let out an unsettled cry.

"I've got her," he said taking the baby, propping her against his shoulder, rubbing her back. He glanced between Chloe and Oliver. "Maybe you two need to..."

"Actually, I came to see my daughter and to talk to you, Bart," Oliver said stonily. "Chloe," he said with a short nod.

Chloe swallowed tightly and tore her gaze away from the barely controlled expression of tension on Oliver's face. She felt nervous leaving the men alone, with her daughter no less. But she trusted them both not to put her in any danger, so she touched Bart's arm in a reassuring gesture. "I'll be inside."

Oliver waited until Chloe disappeared inside before he forced himself to relax. He was tired, he'd been through the wringer both mentally and physically more times than he cared to think about in the past few years. Taking Hal's advice, pulling his head out of his ass, apologizing to Dinah and promising to make it up to her, he was relieved to know she forgave him, for everything and was even willing to take him back, despite hearing him say that he'd slept with Chloe. Having her love and support got him through things and he'd only just come to terms with Chloe leaving him again when the curve ball hit.

The news that Connor and Roy had delivered him about Bart's fiancee having a baby dealt him a double blow he hadn't been prepared for. Chloe had had his baby, but she was marrying Bart. It didn't take a genius to do the math. The fact that she'd named the kid after his mother and told him he was welcome to visit, mean she wasn't even trying to hide it either. Their lives were really monumentally complicated. Ten times worse than any bad soap opera.

Bart's voice brought him out of his trance but he couldn't shake the feelings seeing her again had stirred up.

"I can't apologize for getting her to fall in love with me. If I wanted to be petty about it, I'd say I had dibs first. I fell for her back in high school. It took her this long to finally notice me and take me seriously."

"I didn't come here to make trouble. I just had to see.. I needed to see that it's real," Oliver said tiredly. "I think part of my problem was I kept thinking it was us that were fated, but I know now that we're not. Dinah does make me happy, and I still don't believe it but she loves me, even though I'm the most screwed up guy on the planet, with issues to spare. When Connor told me that Chloe had a baby, my kid, I got to thinking about Fate. The Helmet of Nabu. It doesn't show you your own fate. Chloe saw things about my life that I never told anyone, it didn't make sense before how she could know so much about all the years she wasn't a part of my life... it's because I wasn't her future. It's you. You're her destiny. I didn't believe in all that until I saw the way she just looked at you. She looked at me like that once, but I don't imagine I could ever be the kind of guy that would raise another man's kid or stand by her the way you have. Just make her happy, alright?"

Bart nodded, stunned by Oliver's frank admission. Dinah really had managed to mellow his temper a lot of the years. "My mission, every day, is to see her happy. I can't even describe how it feels to see her smile, it's like she can take away doubts, fears, aches with just one of those smiles. Do you want to hold her?" He closed the distance between them, and offered the tiny bundle to Oliver.

Oliver took her awkwardly, and Bart had the clamp down on the urge to snatch her back, instead just hovering with his hands ready to catch her if she accidentally slipped from Oliver's grasp. "She's so small, it's like you're carrying air," he said in quiet awe. She blinked up at him with soft, tiny green eyes, her barely there fuzz of blonde hair glistening in the afternoon sun. "Hey, Laura," he choked out softly. "I'm your other Dad."

Dinah and Chloe watched the men from the window. "It'll take some getting used to, but I think we can handle it, right? We're the Justice League, there's nothing we can't tackle."

Chloe smiled a little and looked up at Dinah her eyes awash with tears. "I never was as strong as you, you're a saint, D."

Dinah put her arm around Chloe's shoulders and squeezed. "I got nothing on you, Chloe. Seriously, being alone, fighting out there for so long, looking out for us. I'm just glad everything has a way of working out. I missed you."

"Missed you too," Chloe said sniffing, her eyes watering a little more at the heartfelt sincerely in Dinah's voice.

_._

Chloe put Laura down in the crib and tucked her wrapped her snugly. The little girl squirmed and screwed up her face in protest at being put down, put Chloe patted her chest gently and shushed her until she settled again.

She checked the baby monitor and backed out of the room only to run into a solid chest.

She jumped and strong hands steadied her. Chloe looked up into Ollie's face in surprise, her pulse quickening and her breathing paused. She couldn't move and she started to feel faint. This wasn't a feeling he'd ever given her before, she could feel her stomach curling in panic.

Oliver seemed to sense her distress and let her go abruptly. "I'm sorry," he apologized, stepping back so she could pass.

Chloe pulled the door, leaving it open a crack. Trying to breath evenly, and get some blood back into her face. She didn't let go of the door knob, her grip hid her hands from trembling.

"I had to talk to you," Oliver said thickly. "I knew you weren't going to come to me, so I... Chloe, I just needed to ask why you didn't tell me when you knew you were pregnant with Laura. I wouldn't have been upset, I would have tried to be there for you."

Chloe swallowed and blinked up at him. "Ollie, I was three months before I realized. And with all you had going on, Queen Industries, people trying to hunt you down, Star City in dire straights, do you really think me adding to that would have be the best thing for you? To me the best decision you made was to go to Dinah and be honest with her. Our relationship didn't start out in the best way, but we learned quickly that the only way we were gonna have anything remotely solid between us was with trust and honesty. The six months we had Ollie, we had such a great partnership and connection because we trusted each other. Dinah loves you, she's been through so much with you, I... I don't think I would have been so understanding or supportive."

"If you'd come back, things would have been different for us."

Chloe shook her head. "We can never know what might have been, only what is. Unless you're one of those super-villians that doesn't care about the butterfly effect and has a time-travel device."

"Did you write me Dear John e-mail, the one I got from Tess?"

Chloe released the door knob and forced herself to take a calming breath. She know what he was really asking. He needed answers for closure. "Oliver, I meant what I said about never loving anyone the way I loved you. Yes, I loved Clark for a long time, yes, I married Jimmy and I grieved for him and I loved him, but you showed me what a true partnership, two people who had the same goals, ideas and purpose and could share a dream. I'd never had a relationship like that before, you challenged me in every way and opened my eyes to the world again. I needed to thank you for that, I needed you to know how much you meant to me."

Oliver nodded and hung his head a little. "So it really was goodbye."

Chloe touched his arm lightly. "I do love you Ollie, I think I always will. If you hadn't stuck by me and introduced me to 'fun'," she said smiling a little, "I think I would have given up. It was just getting to be too much. But you wouldn't let me throw in the towel."

"Yet, all this time you've been on your own, without me or your team of heroes and you never stopped."

"When I came to Star City, I was falling again. Feeling really alone and a little disillusioned with everything and then there you were. It wasn't exactly the pick me up I was looking for, but you forced me to feel and that's what brought me back. I couldn't pretend anymore that I wasn't searching to reconnect. But I couldn't search you out again, I told you I wasn't going to be the one to ruin what you had, so instead I got back to work, which lead me back to Bart. Sneaky guy bugged me when we last ran into each other and gave my GPS code to Bruce. They'd both been keeping tabs on me. I came here to chew him out and he ended up turning the tables on me. He took me by surprise, I didn't even see it coming."

Oliver's lips pulled at the corners. "You really didn't know, all these years that he's been completely hung up on you?"

Chloe blushed. "I thought it was just his way. I thought he was like that with all the girls. I know different now."

Oliver chuckled uncomfortably and looked away. "Well, he was a serial flirt, but there was only ever one girl he got nervous over Chloe, and that was you. He used to sweat bricks and buzz around like a squirrel on too much caffeine at any mention of Smallville or Metropolis. Until I meet you myself, I had no idea what the guys were talking about, Clark's go-to girl, this cute, pocket-sized, blonde-haired budding reporter."

Chloe smiled, and urged them to walk down the corridor from the nursery so they wouldn't wake Laura. "I never wanted it to seem like I'd keep her from you Ollie. I want you to be in her life, as much as you want to be. You're still a very public figure, so of course I'll worry but you're also her father. When she's older, I'd like for her to spend time with you and Dinah."

Oliver swallowed tightly, his eyes clouding. He nodded. "We'd like that."

"Good," Chloe nodded, smiling softly.

He touched her elbow when she turned to leave, and Chloe shivered at the look in his eyes, there was no tension or angry hurt anymore but he was staring at her like he was hoping to see into her. "Are you happy?"

Chloe felt her eyes water at the tremor in his voice. She nodded affirmatively. "He makes me very happy, Ollie. More than I deserve and more than I thought I'd ever feel again."

He let her go, and she left him, walking quickly back to the living room where Bart and Dinah were waiting. She wiped her eyes before entering the room, not wanting either of them to think there was any reason for concern, because there wasn't. They were bittersweet tears. Things were a long way from being the close friendship they once had, and there were a lot of hurts that only time would heal, but they'd been honest with each other. That was the most important thing.

Later that night after Dinah and Oliver had left, Chloe put Laura into her crib after nursing her back to sleep and crawled into bed next to Bart, who was propped against the pillows, leaning against the headboard watching her. She curled and snuggled up to him under the covers and rested her head on his chest.

"I want to marry you," she said softly, looking up at him as he ran his hands through her now shoulder-length blonde hair.

Bart nodded and smiled. "I know, you said yes already. I'm holding you to it."

Chloe shook her head. "No, I mean, why wait anymore?"

Bart stilled his hand and looked down into her eyes. "You're sure? Because if you're ready, I can call a guy tomorrow. He's a priest at St John's downtown. He can marry us by the end of the week."

"Not tomorrow?"

Bart chuckled. "That eager to take me off the market?"

Chloe wrinkled her nose at him and poked him in the ribs. "No, I want to be Mrs. Chloe Ann Allen."

"I'd like the sound of that," Bart said leaning down to kiss her softly. "In fact, I think I'd like to make love to the future Mrs. Allen right now, if you're up to it?"

Chloe grinned and kissed the pulse point on his neck, before craning up to whisper in his ear, "I'm ready when you are."

Six months later, they finally can arrange their schedules to take a proper honeymoon. Chloe feeling confident enough to fly with Laura, still having attachment anxiety and not wanting to let her daughter out of her sight. Between her juggling her new job with the Department of Metahuman Affairs working as an analyst and profiler, working out of her 'Black Orchid' den - something Diana Prince, a good friend of Clark's had helped her land- and mom to Laura. Bart pulling quadruple duty, splitting his time between the Teen Titans, JL, watching over Keystone and playing devoted husband and father, they were insanely busy people. But Chloe being the multi-tasking wizard that she was and Bart being, well The Flash, they managed and their lives couldn't be more full, happy or complete.

As they made love on the beach under the stars, Laura quietly asleep in her mesh draped port-a-cot, Chloe felt no restraint as she looked into the face of the man she married, the man she loves, her body and soul are one with his and his name falls like a quiet prayer from her lips as she comes in his arms.

It was a long time ago that Chloe Sullivan died, so that the man she loved could live. And with his watchful, tender care, this dark auburn, wavy-haired, speedy hero had mended her battered heart had taught her how to love and live again.

FIN


End file.
